To Defeat a Monster you must become a Monster (SNK ED)
by Skeleturd
Summary: "Sometimes the world doesn't need anther Hero... Sometimes what it needs is a monster" Eren Yeager realised this, he realised this at a young age, so maybe in the far future he could thank his father what he did, maybe he could thank his dead father for turning him into one, maybe he would thank his father for giving him control of his monstrous form. (Shingeki version)
1. It all started with a Needle

**It All Started With a Needle. And then I Became a Titan.**

 _ **A/N: 09/02/2017: This story is something of a time-sink, so I am just uploading the first chapter to see If there is any interest in such a story like this, if not, I will simply get rid of it, I'd hate for my other stories to be once again left in the dust because of this story. Let me know what you all think please.**_

 _ **Don't know why I did this. Chances are, when this eventually gets uploaded will be much further in time when I originally wrote this. This was one of the stories that I have been writing on the side to practice my writing ability. Let me know what you think about Eren and Annie's personality please. I personally liked the way I wrote Annie in this. But with Eren? There's only so much "angry kid being angry" that I can write before I want to choke myself. So I hope I didn't make him seem too OOC due to his not always being "angry McAngerson".**_

 **LINE-BREAK**

 _I always wondered why I was so violent when I was young. Naturally I assumed that it was purely because of the fact that I grew up in a harsh environment. But that couldn't be the sole reason as my friend Armin grew up in the same area and grew up kind and caring. I was unique, I was violent. It wasn't like the other kids growing up in the Shinganshina were all incredible kind, most of them in fact were violent as well. But they were never as violent as me. I looked for fights, I argued constantly with my adopted sister; Mikasa. I was constantly beaten up by taking on far much more than I could chew but I never stopped looking for fights. Mother despised that horribly, she hated to see me come home covered in bruises, Mikasa supporting me as most of the time I was beaten so badly that I couldn't walk or see straight. But my wounds never lasted for more than a day and the day after I was back outside, looking for even more fights. Of-course I wasn't a pushover, I mean, I was always beaten. BUT, I always gave as good as I got and I got a lot. Ten versus me? I would knock at least five to six unconscious by myself before Mikasa would have to step in and help me._

 _She's freakishly strong, like stupidly strong._

 _I got of topic… where was I?_

 _Oh yes, my unusual lust for battle, I guess I could blame it all on my father's experiments._

"Da-Dad! What are you doing!?"

"It's okay son, just relax, It's just a needle. I promise nothing bad will happen".

"NO DAD, STOP DAD!"

"I'm sorry Eren, so sorry. But I have to do this, all I can do is pray that you won't remember this".

"DAD NOOOOOOOO".

 _I felt a sting in my arm as my father stabbed me with the needle. I should have passed out after that, the shock alone should have knocked out any child. But I didn't forget, I didn't pass out. I remembered… everything._

Pain spread through my body as my body started to grow and expand exponentially, my injected arm grew first, turning into the arm of a giant. Next came my head, the growth of my head could be compared to an explosion going off in my head, expanding it. Then came my other arm and my legs. Everything grew. Everything HURT. The pain lasted for a few moments after the initial expansion and suddenly my whole body felt warm and safe. It felt strong. It felt big. Then I suddenly lost control of my body.

That night was the last time my father would be alive.

 _That was the first time I turned into one of them and it most certainly wasn't the last. I lost my father, when I woke up after my loss of control I was still in my other form. I instantly knew what had happened to my father. The taste of copper in my mouth was all the information I needed._

 _I had eaten my own father. I cursed this form, I cursed it to the depths of hell, but I realised that I couldn't just sit in my own depression until someone found me and killed me. The first thing I had to do was return to my human form._

I claw at my face in desperation, tears staining my titanic-like form. I begin to panic as I try to gain my bearings. I was still in the forest, what was left of my father's form was strewn about the forest clearing. Unsure of what to do right away I go about burying what was left of my last blood-relative. Something that was made much easier due to my incredible size. I easily manage to dig my bloodied hands into the dirt floor and heave a chunk of the ground up. Feeling it was the best thing I could do I scraped what was left of my father into the impromptu grave. Making sure that all of the parts of my father were in the grave I replace the dirt and pat it down to smoothen it.

 _I felt incredibly conflicted. On one hand I had just killed my father and had just buried him. I felt sick. However, on the other hand, what my father had done to me was unforgivable. How could of he deliberately turn me into one of those. Titans, the name of the monsters that plagued our world, and I was now one of them. Obviously now knowing what I was, I tried my best to turn back into a human._

I scratched at my face, taking note of my lower-jaw and how bizarre it was. I remember that the Titans weak point was its neck and with nothing else to lose I begin to feel around the back of my neck. I scratched deeply and feel relief when my fingers gain a foothold in my neck. Taking my chance I place my other hand at the back of my neck and pull apart my hands. I wince as I feel my skin tearing. Somehow I knew, I knew what I was doing was right. Holding my neck open with one hand I reach into my body with my other hand. I feel my muscles and feel disgusted as I hear the squelching. It was then that I felt it. There was something strange in the back of my neck and for some reason, I grabbed onto that thing and pulled.

I pulled as hard as I could.

 _ **TEAR**_

 _The first time turning back into a human was rough. I was still inexperienced with returning to my human form. I had ripped my Titan forms neck muscles apart removing my human body. I didn't care though, I had escaped from my internal torture._

I wake up and instantly run my hands over my body, glad to see that my body was no longer huge. I find myself still in the clearing, my titanic form dead nearby. I'm still unsure of what to do, tears unintentionally fall from my face as I stand up from the ground and move towards my father's impromptu grave. My feelings swirl within me like a vortex upon the matter of my father's death. I close my eyes in trauma as I give an internal prayer to my father. With nothing else to do I run. I just run. But I knew, I knew that from that day on, my life would never be the same ever again.

 _My god what a cliché line of thought that is. Something you'd see littered through fictional books. However on this occasion it was true. Almost to true for someone at the age of twelve. But I soldiered on, soldiered on for six months with Armin and Mikasa, but then I had another transformation._

I was running, running for my life. I had just moments ago stolen some food from some stall vendor in the market. I'd thought it'd be an easy meal, run in, swipe some bread and get the hell out of there. Too bad I didn't account for the local gang to be in-charge of "protection" for that certain food vendor. Honestly, out of all of the vendors in the market that sold food I decided to steal from the only one protected by the "Titan's hand". A quickly growing gang located near the farm that I was working on until I reached thirteen. Why was I stealing food if I worked on a farm?

Well, the fact is that ever since I transformed that first time, I had adopted an appetite that would put most Titans to shame. I assumed that the transformation also transformed how much food I needed to eat. And what the farmer gave me was no-way near enough. I turn down a corner, my feet slapping against the stone floor as I desperately tried to get away. Alas it wasn't meant to be as the alleyway I turned into was filled with even more members of the gang, all looking incredibly fierce and dangerous. I turned to head back but was stopped by a vicious back-hand from one of my many pursuers. The only thought running through my mind as I fell to the floor was how much effort this gang was putting into catching a small kid who stole a loaf of bread.

Maybe food was scarcer than I initially thought?

When I hit the floor I didn't even think of the consequences, that blood-lust I had acquired when I was younger rose up through my body and before I knew it, I held my hand up to my mouth.

One of the thugs laughed, probably assuming I was going to suck my thumb.

"What's the matter kid? Scared?"

I didn't even have to think of a reply.

"No. But you should be…"

I bit my hand and all hell broke loose.

 _That was the second time I transformed. It was stupid and messy and stupid and brutal and did I mention stupid? Because I was, as soon as I transformed and squashed a few of the thugs, most of them realised they had messed up and tried to run. I couldn't let them escape, they had seen my face. I killed them all, blood was splattered all across the alley-way wall. And it was at this specific moment, where the blood was coating my hands that I realised that I had just transformed in a heavily populated district. Thankfully I still wasn't big enough to reach over the building. It seemed that my Titan form grew as my human form grew. This is when I heard shouting, most likely someone had heard the screams and alerted the Garrison. Having absolutely no Idea what to do I quickly yanked my neck open and ripped myself out of there. And as I fell from my Titans neck the thought struck me._

 _I really needed a more efficient way of turning back into a human, ripping my open neck open hurt like you wouldn't believe. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the shouting was from the Garrison who came around the corner to see strewn about body parts, a dead Titan and a crying young boy. I added the crying just before they saw me, best to act like the terrified victim eh? Anyway, after that I was questioned as to what happened._

"What happened here kid?" asked a garrison member, he was a man looking about his thirties, a kind, worried look in his eyes.

"I… I… I…" I couldn't answer I was blubbering like a baby. But only I knew that this was all a clever ruse to trick the men from accusing me.

The man comforted me, placing his arms around me and cooing sweet nothings into my ear. It was a very kind sentiment but I still needed to figure a way out of this mess.

I decided very heavily edited half-truths would work wonders. And so my bizarrely analytical mind weaved an unbelievable story that would be my alibi. And an unbelievable story was just what was needed for an unbelieve occurrence.

 _I told them that one of the thugs transformed into a Titan suddenly and all the other thugs tried to kill him. They succeeded at the cost of their own lives. I was just an unfortunate witness who happened to be in the alley-way at the time. I survived by hiding underneath an upturned wagon if remember correctly. I know what I did was horrible and inhumane, but I wasn't all that bothered. It was at this point that I think I might've subconsciously realised that the death of both my parents and my transformation might've affected me much more deeply than I had initially theorised._

 _To sum it up. My head was fucked._

 _Any-who! I was escorted back to the farm where I was enveloped into a bone-crushing hug from Mikasa and even Armin got involved with the hug. It was nice to be worried about, it reminded me that I wasn't alone in this ordeal at the end of the day._

 _It was also this incident that inspired me to do what I did next._

I snuck out after dark, it was easy as Mikasa had fallen asleep worrying about me too much and Armin slept like a log. A blonde haired log that liked to read a lot. I was heading towards the nearby forest, it would be the perfect location for what I was planning to do. I entered the forest with no trouble, farmer John never let anyone worked during the night, too much risk of thugs coming by. Well there was no more risk now. I walk through the forest, a certain destination in mind. It would take a few moments to get there but I knew no-one would be there. I had been walking for about ten minutes now, and I had finally come across what I was looking for.

The hastily roughed up ground and the almost fully-decayed Titan corpse was all I needed to know where I was. I walk into the clearing, taking extra care to avoid walking on my father's hastily made grave. Thankfully, I reached the centre of the clearing, a few feet away from my previous Titan's corpse. I needed a lot of space for what I was going to do.

I raised my hand to my mouth.

When Mikasa and Armin had hugged me before, I realised something important. Something so very, very important.

I moved my thumb into a better position.

That I would use everything in my power to protect the ones I cared about.

I readied my mouth.

I would save this world. I would save humanity.

I bit into my hand, and yellow lightning struck me where I stood.

 _And that was how I started my Titan training. Every night I would head into the forest and transform and each time I would get more acquainted with my new form. I didn't know this but I didn't actually know how to walk for a while. That took at least a couple of nights of pure will to learn how to walk. And running? That took weeks. It was weird, learning how to use my Titan body was like relearning all of the basics of life. How to walk and run. Talking was out of the question at first, all I could manage was a few guttural noises that I didn't want to practice in case I woke someone up. I could be really loud. But after a few more months of practice I had managed to choke out a few words like my name and Mikasa's name. No small feat If I do say so myself._

 _I also noticed something else, every time I used my Titan form, my human form would grow stronger as well. Not incredibly strong mind you. But I was slowly but surely becoming as strong as Mikasa who as I stated before was stupidly strong._

 _I was still having trouble getting out of the thing itself. I had managed to get rid of the whole rip my neck open thing and now I would sit still for a moment before allowing my body's incredible heat to melt my Titan's body. This was surprisingly painless, the only drawback was that it was considerably slower than my other way of removing myself._

 _I also tested my Titan's strength, I was able to lift up a whole oak tree up and carry it around with ease. This test also helped test my regeneration factor that all Titans seemed to have. The tree had slipped from my grasp and crushed my foot. I didn't feel any pain but I instantly toppled to the ground. Basically, it took a few seconds for my foot to be as good as new. And this healing factor didn't just account for my Titan form evidently, as one day when I was working the farm, one of the horses kicked me in the chest, breaking more than a couple of ribs. The doctor, the farmer called in said I might never be able to breathe as well as I did ever again. But just the next day, my ribs had healed and I was back out there, making doubly sure to stay away from the horses from then on._

 _The whole Titan thing wasn't as bad as I initially thought it was._

 _Nothing else really happened that was worthy of note. Hang on… There was that one time that Mikasa asked me if something was up._

I had just finished my days work at the farm and was heading to the market to get some extra food, hopefully this time wouldn't end with multiple deaths over a single loaf of bread. However, as I was walking to town I heard someone following me. Another addition from my Titan powers were my increased senses, my hearing and sight had practically doubled from what it was before. And it was that same increased hearing that allowed me to hear the hurried footsteps following at a certain distance behind me.

And me, being the abrasive young person that I was decided the best course of action would be to turn around and address my stalker.

"Whoever's following me; come out!" I spoke assertively, a ruse to show my follower that I wasn't worried when in fact I was. I didn't want to have to transform again. Too risky.

Thankfully, all of my worries were for naught as the person following me walked out from behind a building. I instantly recognised the person due to their scarf.

"M-Mikasa? Why are you following me!?"

Mikasa only rushed towards me, stopping only a few feet away from me. I could see an embarrassed blush adorn cheeks, probably caused from being caught red-handed.

"Eren. Is everything… alright?"

Mikasa's question disturbed me. Had she noticed my difference in personality ever since that fateful day when wall Maria was broken into?

"What do you mean by alright?"

Mikasa looked uncertain as she formulated her thoughts, her forte had never been discussing problems or any kind of talking in general. A habit probably gained from her terrible past. She clenched her fingers on the scarf I gave her, a habit of nervousness that she developed over the years she lived with my family.

"I- I mean, you haven't been acting like yourself since _THAT_ day…"

So she had noticed, she had noticed my new-found personality. My new… subdued personality. But I couldn't let her know she was right, I didn't want her to worry about me anymore, I had decided three months ago that I would be the one to worry for my friends, I would be the one to protect them, by any means necessary. So with that thought, I placed my hands on Mikasa's shoulders, ignoring the blush that grew on her cheeks when I did so.

"I'm fine Mikasa. I just realised a couple of things a while ago. Nothing to worry about, trust me."

My reassurances seemed to alleviate some of Mikasa's worries, but her doubt stayed within her eyes.

"Eren, you do know that I care about you, don't you?"

"Of-course I know that Mikasa! Honestly, you need to stop worrying about me! I've just matured a bit, nothing else. I promise!"

To prove my "honesty" I enveloped Mikasa in a hug, a hug that Mikasa was absolutely shocked by, if her body going completely still told me anything. I felt Mikasa's hand twitch in anticipation.

"Eren… D-do you promise to al-always stay wi-with me?"

I mentally sighed at Mikasa's insecurity's, at first glance she seemed like someone who was unaffected by feelings. But in reality, her attitude was just a cover for her damaged mind and feelings. This wasn't the first time that I have had to reassure her since the day I found her in that cabin in the woods.

I hugged Mikasa tighter than before.

"Mikasa, I promise that I will always stay with you."

It took all of one second for Mikasa's arms to wrap around me, hugging me as tightly as I was hugging her. We stood there for at least a minute, Mikasa allowing her insecurities to show to me only. Thankfully, the street that I confronted her following me was usually empty at this time of day.

"Okay, Mikasa, I still need to get some food from the market, so could you errr…"

It seemed that my words brought her back to her senses and she quickly jumped back, embarrassed once again. She seemed to be doing that a lot these days.

Mikasa adjusted her scarf before looking at me again.

"Why are you going to the market in the first place?"

"Well, I'm super hungry, so I go into the market to get some extra food".

"Why? You could just have some of mine!"

"No, no, no! We barely get enough food in the first place, I'm not about to take some of yours!"

Mikasa looked determined to change my mind, but we both knew she wouldn't, I wasn't about to let her win this one.

"I'll see you back at the house Mikasa, I'll be there in an hour."

I turn around and continue onwards to my destination.

I honestly expected to hear Mikasa following me still. But surprisingly, she just went back to the farm.

I scratched the back of my neck as I walked towards the market, that action being brought on by the loads of times I have had to rip my Titan's neck apart. It seemed that trait followed me into my human form. Albeit, at a much more controlled rate. E.G. I don't rip my human neck apart.

 _And that was really, the last major thing that happened in the short year we lived at the farm. I continued practicing with my Titan form each night and each night I became even more proficient in using said form. I was able to walk, run, talk to some kind of degree and even learn to fight to some pathetic level. I'd probably be able to take on a single Titan, maybe two at the same time at that current skill level. But one's like the armoured one would rip me apart._

 _And that was when I had that thought. The armoured Titan, was that something every Titan could learn to do? If so, could I learn it? But how would I even go about learning it? I didn't know so that kind of training for armouring my skin was a very, very slow process. Practically non-existent at that point. Not even worth mentioning honestly._

 _Let's see, is there anything else to mention during that year? Oh yeah! I don't even know how I forgot about that!_

 _On that night when I first transformed and my father… ahem. On that night my father also gave me a key. A key that I knew all too well, but didn't know anything about what the key unlocked to. All I knew was that it opened the locked door to my old homes basement. And my father also left me an important message._

" _You must retake Shinganshina, you must find our house. The basement. The basement, you have to go into the basement. Don't forget son, whatever you do, remember to find the Basement."_

 _It's the last memory I have of my father besides his untimely demise. But at the point I was at then, I had no chance to retake or even get into Shinganshina at my current power. The whole district had become Titan territory and one kid able to turn into a Titan with basic combat skills wasn't going to be enough._

 _What happened next? That was simple, I, Mikasa and Armin decided to join the cadets after the first year at the farm finished up._

"Name, age, first living location and reason as to joining."

The recruiter spoke in a bored attitude, as if he had been at this all his life. I didn't particularly care though, It just gave me an easier way into the cadets.

"Eren Yeager, 13 years old, I come from the Shinganshina district, and I want to join the cadets to help humanity".

I imagine my reason for joining was pretty generic, but it would suffice, I wanted to say, to kill all the Titans, but I would rather not be laughed out of the recruitment centre to be honest.

"Okay, I've signed you up, be here at 6:00 Am sharp tomorrow, you head instructor will come to collect all of you. NEXT!"

I nod as I hurriedly move out of the way for Mikasa to sign up. Armin was just behind her, waiting to join up as well.

I clench my fist in anticipation, I was ready to join the fight for humanity. By using the enemy's own form against them if necessary.

I turned to walk outside and wait for my friends, but by per chance I managed to bump into someone a bit shorter than me. However due to my increased strength due to all the times I transformed, I managed to bump the person onto the floor while I stood up straight as if I didn't just get bumped into. I quickly look at the person I pushed onto the ground and extend my hand in apology and to help them back up. But the moment my eyes met hers, my heart skipped a beat. When my eyes caught her blue eyes, I knew something was up with me.

Suddenly, my subdued demeanour I developed due to my traumatic past vanished and I felt like a completely new person. I believe my mother would call it a crush, something that I personally never expected to experience.

"I'm so sorry! I wasn't thinking correctly. Here, let me help you up!"

However, instead of accepting my hand, the person just brushed my hand aside and pushed themselves up. I placed my hand back to my side in embarrassment as my other went to scratch the back of my neck. A nervous smile crossed my face as I tried to start some kind of conversation.

"Sorry about that again. I hope I didn't hurt you or anything."

The blonde haired girl in-front of me just continued to glare at my face. Awkward didn't even begin to describe the situation I found myself in. But I didn't particularly care at the moment.

"My names Eren Yeager, I er… just signed up for the cadets, what about you?"

Even, I, with my incredibly rubbish social skills understood that all I was succeeding in doing was making a fool of myself in-front of this girl.

Once again the girl didn't respond, she just continued to glare at my face. At this point, my neck scratching was starting to scratch some of my skin away. It seemed that my habit was connected with how nervous or embarrassed I was. I realised that all I was doing was being even more of a fool than before. With one final harsh scratch of my neck I bid my farewell.

"Well, it was nice to meet you! Whoever you are…" I manoeuvre myself around her form as I attempt to rush outside with a least a piece of my dignity in-tact.

"Annie…"

I turn my head to the girl who had just spoken. I see her not glaring at me this time, just staring at me, almost quizzically.

"I'm sorry?"

"My name… Annie Leonhart, I'm joining the cadet's as well. Maybe I'll see you around. Yeager." And with that, Annie turned away from me and walked over to a pair of males, both very taller than her. I see the blonde male ask her something before she casts a quick glance at me before turning back to her companions.

I have no idea what any of what just happened would mean later. All I know was that I had a stupid grin on my face for the rest of my day.

That was until Mikasa walked over to me and looked at where I was looking and sent a vicious glare at Annie. I chuckled at that, before walking out of the recruitment office. I needed to Titan train earlier than usual if I wanted to make it to the recruitment office at six in the morning.

 _And that was how I met the one known as Annie Leonhart, I still to this day don't know what came over me to act that way in-front of her. It may not seem that extreme of a personality change to most people. But to me, whose social circle only had two people in it, not counting me, talking to a stranger like that was something I never expected. But I did, and I'm glad I did. Anyway, that day came and went, Mikasa tried to get me to tell her who that was but I didn't, something that infuriated her to no end. I enjoyed doing things like that, it was cute seeing Mikasa flushed or annoyed. It was a nice change to her usual personality; non-existent or brooding._

 _The next day, all three of us arrived at the recruitment office on time. I couldn't find Annie within the crowd before our head instructor came to collect us. Head instructor Keith Shadis, a bald demanding man who at first glance seemed to have seen some things. He collected all of us. I believe his exact words were; "ALL THE SUICIDAL MAGGOTS WHO SIGNED UP YESTERDAY, GATHER ROUND SO I CAN MARCH YOU TO YOUR LIVING QUARTERS FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS"._

 _Real inspirational stuff I know. He escorted us to the cadet training ground, a barren field with six huge cabins, presumably two were the male and female cabins, and one was the shower cabin with separate male and female showers. A canteen with a food storage shack behind it, strangely enough there was a girl already at the shack as I walked by. The next building was the officer hall where the instructors would sleep. And last was where the classrooms were. All of this was surrounded by a huge forest. A perfect place for my Titan training I theorised._

 _We were all lined up and our measurements were taken, we were told that we would claim our bunks and relax for today and that the training would start tomorrow. All the cadets went into the canteen to eat and talk with each other. It was there where I saw her again._

I had picked up my tray of food which consisted of some bread, beans and some meat which I assumed looked like chicken. We also had a glass of water and a full apple. Not exactly a meal fit for a king but for orphans that were fed once a day, three meals like this a day seemed like paradise. I sat down by-myself, waiting for Mikasa and Armin to join me. It seemed like it would take a while as I managed to grab my food quickly. So with nothing else to do I dug into my bread. It was nice to have a meal. I expected no-one to sit at my table until Mikasa or Armin grabbed their food, but when I saw the tray be placed across from me, it wasn't either of them. I looked up to see her.

Annie Leonhart from yesterday was sitting across from me.

Unsure of what to do, I offer her a nervous smile. She just stares back at me before shortly continuing her meal.

"It's err… nice to see you again Annie."

Once again, no response. Normal people would find this kind of attitude incredibly rude, but I just found it entrancing. She was like a safe, and I wanted to crack said safe.

Not the best metaphor I've ever made but it'd suffice.

Not sure what to do next I started to spoon around the beans on my plate with my utensil. I suddenly wasn't that hungry, honestly, I just wanted to talk at this point.

"Did you come with those two guys from yesterday?"

Annie looked at me quizzically at my question as if saying I should clarify.

"Err… those two tall guys, the blonde and brown haired guys. Did you come with them?"

No answer. I had a feeling this would become common-place with her.

Let the neck scratching commence. If this level of scratching kept up, I'd have to have a permanent bandage around my neck, otherwise I'd cut my neck open at this rate.

And unlike my Titan form, I will not find a smaller version of me hiding within the back of my neck.

At least I hope I wouldn't.

"Reiner and Bertolt."

"Who?"

"The names of the guys I came with…"

"You grow up with them?"

No answer.

I sigh.

"Is it going to be like this every time we meet?"

Annie looks up at me, she was probably expecting to see an annoyed look on my face. It would explain why her eyes widened slightly when she saw my amused smile on my face.

"You're a strange person Annie Leonhart."

My statement was clear and concise, Annie, for her part didn't change her facial expression, except for her eyes going back to unamused look.

"It's probably why I like talking to you."

Annie's head snapped back up so fast that I thought I heard a crack. But her surprised look was what I paid more attention to. Her look told me that she was expecting anything else except from what I had just said.

"You're a bit of a mystery Annie, and I want know more about you to be perfectly honest."

I imagine Annie had never had such a massive look of surprise on her face in her life.

I smile as I continue to eat my bread. I cast a glance at my friends to see Mikasa about to receive her food. From her haunch shoulders, I could tell she wasn't exactly happy about Annie sitting across from me.

"I lived in a small village, when the wall was breached, I, Reiner and Bertolt left the village and decided to join the cadets."

I paid close attention to all she said, I still don't know what, but I wanted to get to know Annie better. Call it; child-like curiosity.

"What about you?"

A sad look crossed my face as I recalled my origins to joining the cadets.

"I lived in the Shinganshina district, I… became an orphan after the breach and I wanted revenge on the Titans that…"

I sigh as I don't finish my sentence, I knew Annie could piece together why I wanted my revenge.

"But more than that. I just want to be able to protect the people I care most about."

Annie stares at me for a few moments, before she grabs her tray and stands up. Finished with her meal. My eyes follow her, I feel kind of sad that she hadn't said anything to me after I revealed my past. However, as she walked past me after putting her tray away, she whispered in my ear.

"You're a strange person. Eren Yeager."

And with that she walked away, probably to go claim her bunk.

Shortly after Mikasa and Armin managed to sit with me, Mikasa burning holes through the door Annie left through with her eyes. I just chuckle as I dig into the rest of my meal when suddenly another person sits down next to me. I look to my left to see a girl with brown hair, tied in a pony-tail looking at my tray of food.

"You gonna' eat that?"

That's how I met Sasha Blouse.

 _That concluded my first day at training. The next morning we were assigned our new uniforms and were ordered to line up outside. It was time for Keith "Shouting" Shadis to give the new cadets a "pep" talk._

"ALRIGHT YOU LITTLE SHIT-STICKS! LINE UP AND LOOK SHARP OTHERWISE I WILL PERSONALLY INSERT MY BOOT UP EACH OF YOUR ASSES. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

"SIR YES SIR".

So we all lined up.

"WELL I MUST SAY THAT I AM VERY DISSAPOINTED IN WHAT WE HAVE THIS TIME. A BUNCH OF PANSIES WHO LOOK LIKE THEY JUST STOPPED WEARING DIAPERS. SOME OF YOU EVEN LOOK LIKE YOU STILL WEAR DIAPERS."

Keith stomped down the line, probably looking for any easy looking prey.

To this day I still don't know why he decided I was easy prey.

I winced as Shadis stomped in-front of me.

"HELLO SHITBIRD, WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"

"EREN YEAGER SIR."

"EREN GODAMN YEAGER EH? TELL ME EREN YOGHURT, WHERE ARE YOU FROM?"

"SIR, I'M FROM THE SHINGANSHINA DISTRICT SIR".

You could hear a pin drop at that statement. I suppose it was because I was still alive and not dead in the Shinganshina district.

"AND WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU STAINING MY EYES RIGHT NOW WITH YOU'RE PRESENCE."

 _To this day, I still don't know why I said what I said. Maybe it was because I wanted to be seen as brave to everyone else._

"SIR, I'M HERE TO KICK THE ABSOLUTE FUCK OUT OF EVERY TITAN I CAN FIND… SIR"

I suppose I should have expected the head-but I received. It was never a smart idea to swear in-front of a superior officer.

Thankfully, due to the uncountable amount of times I have ripped myself out of my Titan's neck (which hurts like crap by the way) so I didn't really react to the attack, I just flinched at the contact. Keith steps back from the attack and looks me up and down.

"I'M IMPRESSED YOGHURT, IT SEEMS LIKE YOU DO INDEED HAVE SOME BALLS, I EXPECT GOOD THINGS FROM YOU YOGHURT."

"SIR, THANK-YOU SIR."

And that was my first personal interaction with head instructor; Keith Shadis. What a nice guy. Instructor Shadis continued onwards to shout at some more recruits. I took the chance to glance around at my fellow cadets. My eyes caught hers. Annie was looking at me with one of her eyebrows raised. I smiled at her and she simply pointed at her forehead. I reached up and was surprised when I felt the warm feeling of liquid coat my forefingers.

Blood. If there was one thing I wasn't going to expect, it was the idea of bleeding from a head-but. But here I am, bleeding from the forehead after a surprise head-but.

Check that off the list I suppose.

I grabbed a tissue out of one of my uniform pockets. I dab my forehead, there wasn't a lot of blood, I was just trickling down from a small injury. It took a few moments but soon enough my forehead was clear of blood. I cast a glance at Shadis to make sure he wasn't looking my way. I turn back to Annie and give her a thumbs up. She only nods before turning her head back to the front, having finished with the "conversation" that we just had.

I could just feel the annoyed look Mikasa was giving me as well as the piercing glare she obviously would be sending Annie's way.

"WELL, LOOK AT THIS POSH KNOB! WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"

Keith's shouting gained my attention once again and I saw him standing in-front of a decently tall boy with ash-brown hair.

"MY NAME'S JEAN KRISTEIN SIR. PLEASURE!"

"IT MAY BE A PLEASURE FOR YOU JOHN! BUT FOR ME, I JUST HAD SOME SHITSTAIN TRY TO GET ON MY GOOD SIDE. WHY ARE YOU HERE JOHN?"

It seemed like mocking our names was Shadis's only form of entertainment.

"Err… the names Jean sir and I'm here to live a comfy life inside the walls."

I winced for poor Jean, even before the attack came I knew he was going to be in pain.

The head-but caught the brown-haired cadet by surprise it seemed, as when he was hit, Jean fell to the floor holding his forehead in pain.

"DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO CORRECT ME MAGGOT. YOU'RE NAME IS JOHN AND WILL STAY AS JOHN UNTIL YOU PROVE YOUR WORTH. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

A weak and mumbled "sir yes sir" was Jean's reply.

"THAT GOES FOR YOU TOO YOGHURT. YOU HEAR ME?"

"INDEED I DO SIR".

"GOOD. Now, who's next? OH MY SWEET GODDAMN WALL, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING CADET?"

I looked at where Keith was storming to. I saw Sasha from yesterday eating a potato.

The sound of funeral trumpets played in my head. Poor, hungry Sasha.

"NO I DON'T WANT YOU'RE FUCKING POTATO".

 _That was our introduction speech. Real kind stuff I know. Nothing of note happened for the rest of the day, we were introduced to the rest of our instructors, were told what was expected of us a brand new cadets and were informed of meal times, waking time and curfew. Curfew was kind of a blessing in disguise for me, it meant that when I snuck out at night, that nobody else would be out of fear of being caught by head instructor Shadis. Well, that's what I thought anyway, it didn't actually go that way as the first night I went to Titan train was when I met two more people._

I had just snuck out of the boy's cabin and tip-toed down the porch steps onto the ground. I was now out of my uniform and in my casual clothes. I checked if the coast was clear before I walked around my cabin to go into the forest. That's where I bumped into a tiny blond haired girl. It seemed like my introductions with all blonde women would play out with me knocking them to the ground accidentally.

"Oh god. I'm so sorry for that, here let me help you."

I reached my hand out and was momentarily surprised when the girl on the floor accepted my gesture. Then I remembered that not all blondes are like Annie. I heaved her to her feet with little effort.

"I'm really sorry about that again. I wasn't looking where I was going."

The small girl shook her right hand in-front of her face to dissuade my worry.

"Its fine, I wasn't paying attention either."

I smiled in relief.

"I'm glad I didn't hurt you, my names Eren Yeager, what's yours?"

A look of recognition passed through the petite girls large blue eyes.

"Oh, you're the cadet who Head instructor Shadis head-butted first! Are you okay after that? I saw some blood on your forehead and I was a little worried he might've hurt you pretty badly."

"Oh no. I'm fine, much better off than that Jean guy anyway. Thanks for your concern though, its sweet."

The small girl just shook her head in disagreement.

"It's nothing… It's just what anyone would do."

I laughed good-naturedly.

"If you say so. But I'm pretty sure only a really kind and caring person would make sure I was okay."

Our conversation was going to continue when suddenly something came flying past me and I only had a split second to grab the small girl away from the incoming projectile, unfortunately the object that she was carrying in her hands was stolen by the flying thing. A startled sound came from the girl's mouth as I placed her behind me for protection.

Thankfully it was all unneeded as the unknown attacker was simply Sasha; the potato girl who had just grabbed what seemed to be some rolled up meat from the blonde girl.

"Damn-it Sasha, you scared the hell out of us!"

The feasting girl simply ignored us as she continued to gorge away. I was unsure on what to feel, disgusted at her eating manners or amused that she was acting like she had been starved for days with the way she was devouring the meat. I felt movement behind me and looked down to see the small blonde girl looking around my form, before giggling at Sasha's antics.

For some reason, the giggle sounded hollow to me. It sounded fake. I shrugged my shoulders, chalking it up my mind playing tricks on me.

"If you're that hungry Sasha, then I have some water here if you want it?"

I was barely able to once again grab the small girl out of the way of Sasha's flying charge for the water. She managed to grab it and began to chug the water down her throat.

I debated running in all honestly, potato girl was beginning to scare me more than a Titan at this point.

I heard footsteps heading our way due to my enhanced hearing. I saw a tall girl heading our way.

"Oh look, Krista has that girl eating out of the palm of her hand. Such a cute little trickster you are!"

I turn me head to look at the small girl behind me.

"You're names Krista eh?"

"Yes. I'm Krista Lenz, the tall girl who misunderstood me giving out food is Ymir."

I nod and look at Ymir, she was a little taller than me.

"You're Yoghurt right? What are you doing out here?"

Krista moves in-front of me and sends a half-hearted glare at the considerably taller female cadet.

"Ymir, don't be rude!"

"What!? Afraid I might hurt wittle Yoghurt's feelings?"

I'm unsure on how to feel at Ymir's insulting jabs towards me. If I was still like me before wall Maria was breached I'd of probably shouted at her and got all of us caught by Keith Shadis. But being the way I am now, I simply send a glare at the taller person in-front of me.

"You must enjoy insulting people. How hollow is your life that you enjoy mocking other people?"

My words may have been a little too harsh if Krista's gasp and Ymir's irritated look told me anything. I see Ymir about to open her mouth to retort but I cut her off by turning around.

"Well, it's been a pleasure Krista. Not so much for you Ymir but I must say farewell for now."

I head off towards the forest.

"Wait, Eren! Where are you going?"

"I'm going for a walk, I need some fresh air. I.. I had a nightmare."

My lie was instinctual, I hadn't been asleep yet to have my usual nightmare of that terrible day. I honestly shouldn't have been surprised when Krista ran to catch up to me, her personality seemed too kind to let someone go off alone.

"Don't go Eren. Why don't you talk about it? I find that talking with people about your troubles always helps!"

Her kindness touched me. It was rare to find someone as kind as her, but still, it felt… fake somehow.

"Thanks for the offer Krista but I'd rather be by myself to be honest. I'm not really comfortable with talking about problems…"

Another lie, well half-truth really. I have problems but I've never even tried talking about them. I couldn't really see talking to someone about my problems with my Titan transformation going over too well.

I could see it now.

" _Oh hi Krista, you said I could talk about my problems with you right? Well sit down and get comfortable because this is going to take a while. It all started when wall Maria fell and my mother died in-front of me. Then five hours later I killed my father due to him injecting me with something that transformed me into a Titan."_

Yea. I'm sure that would go over perfectly…

"Oh… Okay Eren… just know that you can talk to someone if you need to…"

I look back at Krista and give her what I hoped looked like a reassuring smile.

"Thanks Krista. And I'd really appreciate it if you don't tell anyone about this whole going for a walk thing. I'd hate to worry people."

Krista nods, giving me a hopeful smile.

I nod back and continue into the forest, ready to begin my Titan training as a Cadet.

 _And that's how I met Krista and Ymir. Both of them were obviously keeping secrets, it was even obvious to me, captain oblivious as Ymir had later began to not so kindly refer to me as._

 _Bitch._

 _That night I tried a new technique in my Titan form, I was going to try to use the steam that I could generate when leaving my Titan body slowly in a new way. If I could generate intense heat in my Titan body, maybe I could use that same heat as a form of attack. Maybe I could super-heat my hands and increase my damage capability so that when I punched a Titan in the face, I could simultaneously melt and bruise a Titan._

 _It was worth a shot considering my training with trying to harden my skin was still a fruitless endeavour._

By the time I had reached an acceptable distance from the training ground, I knew I had been walking for at least twenty minutes. Not even waiting I bit into my hand and the yellow lightning struck me, deforming my body into that of a Titan. I didn't worry about anyone coming to see what that lightening was, it was night-time and lightening was common these days.

 _That was my misguided logic anyway._

I adjusted to my new form and took a moment to guess at my height. My Titan form had also been getting taller and taller the older I got. I was told that this training forest had trees that reached at least twenty-five metre's tall. Even in my Titan form I couldn't see the top of the old trees. I guesstimated that my height was around ten to fifth-teen meters at best. So I reached into the tall category of Titans (not counting the colossal of-course). Anyway, remembering why I was here tonight I sat down and began to go through the process of super-heating my body. To do so I had to dig deep into my Titan's form and bring about the regeneration process that generated the steam in the first place. What I was doing was taking the regeneration ability and transferring that into my skin, this would do two major things.

The first is that it would cancel out my regeneration ability. The second one is that, I used that same heat generated from the regeneration to burn my skin, which would normally begin the process of getting out of my Titan body painlessly. Instead of that though, I transferred all of that heat to my hands and watched the results.

Let's just say putting all of the heat that could melt a tall category Titan into two hands was not necessarily a smart idea.

To put a long story short, my hands melted off.

Now, being in my Titan form made it so my pain was heavily dulled. So it would've been a really funny sight to see a Titan sitting on a floor just looking at where his hands used to be. I'm not sure how long I stared at my stumps. Somehow I managed to miss the fact that I would probably burn my hands off.

My jaw lowers as steam escapes, followed by a sigh. I was able to make quite a few human noises and words out now in my Titan form. However my voice was heavily altered, I sounded like I was trying to speak underwater but the words were actually able to come out. They came out gargled somewhat and echo-like, my voice also rose a few octaves, but it didn't make me sound prepubescent, it gave my voice a certain intimidating edge in my opinion. I personally found it very cool. Whilst I waited for my hands to regenerate I decided to practice some new words to say.

"Ahhh-neee. Annn-ehhh."

My voice was being reverberated heavily, it sounded like I was putting far too much emphasis on my vowels. I chalked up the trouble to having no lips. However, not being dissuaded by this, I tried again.

"Arrrneee."

That one was particularly terrible in my opinion.

"Annehhh."

Better, but no dice as they would say.

"Aghney."

I threw my stumps into the air in frustration, I gave up at that point in saying her name. Anyway, my hands had begun to reform, it was a fascinating sight to see. First the bones in my hand grew back, next the muscles. (That was certainly a disturbing image I wouldn't be getting rid of anytime soon.) And finally my skin reformed followed by the steam rising from my hands.

I would never get used to seeing that.

Now having my hands back. (Never thought I'd say that either). I tried heating my hands again, but this time I would spread the heat throughout the entirety of my arms. Results proved more effective this time as when the steam began to form on my arms, my hands didn't instantly melt away. Instead, my arms began to melt very, very slowly. It was a visible thing, I could see the heat slowly eat away at my arms. Quick to test this new ability, I stood up and moved towards the closet tree. I placed my right hand on the trunk of the tree and was surprised when my hand began to burn straight through the bark of the tree. I pulled back and was amazed when I saw my hand-print about 2 feet into the trunk. The trees were about five feet thick and I had only put my hand on the tree for at most three seconds. Impressed at the damage just gently placing my hand on something could do, I tried something different.

Noticing that my arms were still going strong, I continued with this unique training. Moving up to another tree, I prepared myself, going into a fighting stance I took a deep breath and launched my right fist forward into the tree's trunk.

"HRRRRAAAGGGGHHHH".

My fist went straight through the tree.

I took a deep breath and allowed the steam to dissipate from my arms. I took my arm out from the tree and took a step back. I attempted a whistle which only sounded like I was trying to choke on my own tongue.

New point of knowledge about Titans. They can't whistle.

So that blew the dream of being a Harmonica playing Titan out of the water. I figured that I had trained enough that night so I took the time to super-heat my whole body and begin the process to detach myself from my Titan's body. This process as said before took far longer than ripping my neck apart and pulling myself out. I fell out of my Titan's form and landed heavily on my back, grunting in pain.

"God-damnit!" I roared as I stayed where I fell.

A side effect of leaving my Titan's form was that it left me incredibly drained of energy. The first time was the worst, I passed out. The second time I burst into tears and wasn't able to move from that alleyway for at least an hour before the guards managed to get me to move.

Now, all it took was a few moments of relaxation to regain the feeling in my whole body. It still sucked though.

Finally having my body back, I heaved myself to my feet. I glanced at my Titan carcass and was still amazed at the size difference between me and it.

The body would disintegrate shortly.

 _That concluded the second day of training. I got back to the male's cabin and went straight asleep. I always needed a good rest after transforming, it was never a good thing to transform two times in the span of a couple of hours. The last time I did that during my Titan training, my Titan form had collapsed in exhaustion. Gradually, I realised that I shouldn't attempt to transform twice so close after another. Not until I grew stronger within my human body anyway._

 _You're Titan form is only as strong as you're human form is what I realised._

 _I figured that I wouldn't be able to transform multiple times in one day until I was older. Maybe when I graduated is when I could do something like that. But first I would have to graduate, something that I don't think I was fully aware of how difficult it would actually be. I did excel in a few areas though, it Titan basics (where we taught the weaknesses and different types of Titans). Being a secret Titan myself I knew almost everything from the Titans regeneration capability, to the different types of Titans. Normal, abnormal, those kind of things, I figured I myself would be classed as some kind of special abnormal._

 _An abnormal, abnormal you might say. I was the cream of the crop in that specific lesson. I did well in other procedures we went through. On day five Keith began to get serious with our training. That day, every individual cadet's abilities would be tested._

 _Speed, Endurance, strength, intelligence. You know, the basics. I did alright in them, my endurance and strength were in the top three of the cadets, unsurprising considering the fact my Titan form had altered my human boy's capability._

 _Obvious Mikasa came out on top in all of these things, she outright terrified me at some points, and how can someone like her beat someone like that Reiner in a strength test? Hell, he even beat me in that test and I'm technically cheating due to my… condition. If I didn't know better, I'd say that she was a Titan in human skin with that strength._

 _After that day Keith told us that we were through "pussy-footing about" and that he was going to get serious. Even though he already said he was going to get serious, none of us called him out on it. No-one was that stupid. But for that day we were let off to rest and eat. That's where I had another meeting with Annie, this one however ended a little differently._

I had just grabbed my food and turned to see for anywhere I could sit. This time, Mikasa had gotten her food first and was expectantly looking at me, I shrugged as I headed towards her, in all honesty, I hadn't talked to her as much as I should've since we got here. I circled by a few benches and brushed passed a few people to get closer, when suddenly I felt a hand grab my shoulder and pull me towards somewhere.

I managed to correct myself just in time to avoid banging into one of the tables. I looked at who was the owner of the hand and was surprised to see the tall blonde male that Annie said was Reiner smiling at me.

"Sit with us Yeager!"

I don't really know what happened next, somehow I managed to end being sat down next to Reiner as he congratulated me on my surprising strength. His taller friend; Bertolt on his other across from him, looking slightly embarrassed from his friend's antics. And finally there was Annie was once again sat across from me, sitting quietly as she ate.

"Let me introduce ourselves Eren! My name is Reiner Braun and my tall friend over here is Bertolt Hoover. You've already met Annie and she's told us quite a bit about you!"

I cast my gaze towards the blond girl across from me, I could tell that she was purposely trying to avoid my eyes.

My god! She was embarrassed.

"Err, it's nice to meet you Reiner. Bertolt, I'm Eren Yeager as you already know. What's up?"

"Nothing's up! We just wanted to get to know you better is all!"

It seemed that Reiner did the majority of the talking out of the three, Bertolt didn't seem as anti-social as Annie, and he just rather let his friend do the speaking.

"Oh, er… that's fine… why though?"

Reiner grinned as he leaned in closer to me and whispered into my ear.

"Just between you and me. It's because Annie wanted you to sit next to us but she was too shy to say anything."

The moment the last word was spoken I felt the cold hand of despair grip me. I glanced at Annie to see her glaring holes into me.

Wait, not me. No, she was glaring at Reiner who simply pretended not to notice her detest for him.

"Reiner behave yourself!" Bertolt scolded. Reiner just waved his arms in in-front of him.

I chuckled at their antics. That is until Annie sent her glare at me. Now, when Mikasa would glare at me like that, I would seize up, but when Annie glared at me like that I simply smiled back at her cheekily. My response caused her to recoil slightly, causing her eyes to widen slightly, before quickly looking back down at her food.

Reiner laughed at that, when suddenly he jolted in his seat. He sent a glare towards Annie who didn't react in the slightest. She had kicked him in the shin.

I smiled at this groups antics, it may not look it, but I could tell that these three had been through thick and thin together for quite some time. It almost reminded me of me, Mikasa and Armin a little.

Maybe, possible, if you squinted and looked at the trio with your head tilted.

Where was I going with this thought again?

I was broken from my thoughts when Reiner slapped me on the shoulder, in a good natured manner.

It may have been in good nature, but when my head hit the table because of the strength behind Reiner's hand, I didn't much care for "good natured" injuries at that point. I pull my head back up as silence covered the entirety of the canteen. The sound of my head smacking against the desk had reverberated throughout the room. I noticed Mikasa about to storm over here and beat the crap out of Reiner.

"Whoa, Eren, you're bleeding man!"

A voice belonging to a short cadet, named Connie as I had found out previously informed me that yes. I did have a little bit of blood dribbling form my forehead. I pondered whether or not my head bleeding would become a common occurrence for me, as not even more than week ago my head had been bleeding in the exact same spot.

"Aw shit. Eren, I'm so sorry, I thought you'd be able to handle my strength considering you came third in the strength test!"

I just turn my head to give Reiner a strange look.

"It doesn't matter if I was the strongest person in the world, who the hell does that!?"

Reiner just scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. I cast a quick glance at Annie, to see her giving a fierce look at Reiner, shortly before seeing Reiner once again jump in pain. Annie had kicked him again.

I don't know if it was because what Reiner did was stupid, if it was because she was angry that he hurt unintentionally hurt me. In all honestly, I wanted it to be the second option to be perfectly honest. I looked at Mikasa and mouthed to her that it was okay. Reiner already had one angry, violent female on his case, he didn't need that, plus Mikasa angry at him.

No-one deserved that, it was far too harsh a punishment.

A handkerchief suddenly invaded my eyesight. And before I knew what was happening, the blonde girl across from me was kneeling next to me, taking care to wipe the blood away from my head.

I was stunned, from what knowledge I had gathered of the cold cadet, it was that she didn't like to touch people in any way that didn't involve hitting them. And that she rarely, if ever showed concern over someone else.

"An-Annie?"

She didn't respond, she simply continued to gently wipe away the blood. She continued for a few more seconds before deeming that she had wiped enough of the copper liquid away. Before she moved away however she leaned next to my ear.

"You're an intriguing person, Yeager."

With that, she turned and left the canteen.

I unintentionally ignored Reiner's outburst at what just happened. My mind replaying what had just happened over and over again. Unknowingly, a small smile graced my features.

I was intriguing?

She was like puzzle within a puzzle, within another puzzle. All wrapped up in another large complex… puzzle?

She was a mystery alright! Okay!?

I went to bed that night, after my Titan training (nothing exciting happened, I just continued to practice using my super-heat ability). I was confused, why did Annie intrigue me so? Was it her deep blue eyes that had so many secrets hidden within? Was it her blonde hair? The way she sometimes moved a few bangs of her blond hair out of her right eye?

I fancied her didin't I?

Ugh! Good job Yeager! You go, pinning for a girl whose total word-count you have heard was probably less than fifty in total! You go for impossible dreams, first I want to kill all the Titans and now I like Annie!

I sighed. I just seemed to love making my life harder for myself didn't I?

 _That night, I had a rather disturbing dream. Not a disturbing dream as in, the dream was hard to watch or anything like that. It was more disturbing in the way how impossible it seemed to be. I dreamed of my Titan form being revealed, and not only was I not instantly executed on the spot. I ended up being seen as some kind of hero. I actually enjoyed the dream, not the hero part exactly but at the end of the dream, I saw myself hugging a girl lovingly, her face blurred horribly. It was weird, before I became a cadet, my main dream had been to protect my friends and kill all Titans. But now, it seemed my dream had changed somewhat._

 _And not necessarily for the worse._

 _Enough about that though. The next day, Shadis had us take an aptitude test, no-one dared ask why the aptitude test was given after the cadets first day. Ignoring that though, I was determined to show of my skills._

My body flew forward and I smacked my forehead into the hard dirt floor. The warm feeling of blood trickled down my face, as I heard a few people gasp at my accident. Only one thought passed through my mind.

 _Yep. Definitely going to become a common occurrence._

 **CHAP END**

 _ **Not much to say that I already haven't said in the chapter start; authors note. So without keeping you, I'll just bid you a-due.**_

…

…

…

 _ **A-due.**_


	2. Then, the days of our training

**Chapter 2: The Days of our Training.**

 _ **A/N: 15/02/17; Oh yea, I also decided to write this in third-person now, just felt it flowed better,**_

 _ **A/N: 13/02/17; I had this second chapter almost finished for about almost a year at this point, hopefully it stands up!**_

 _ **A/N: Little tip when having to read Eren's Titan dialogue, whenever you read him saying something, try saying out-loud what you read phonetically, as that is the way I write his dialogue, (only far more aggressive in sounding it out) so if some of the words don't make sense at first glance, just try reading each section of the word out-loud. It should work out.**_

 _Before soon, it had been a full year of training as a cadet. A few things had happened throughout that year. After the initial failing at balancing with my 3DMG, I had trained constantly at trying to actually manage to balance, I had a single day to learn to do it properly. Otherwise I was to be thrown out of the cadets._

"Oof!"

Eren Yaeger grunted in pain as his forehead once again smashed into the floor below. This had been the fifth time in a row at trying this. This couldn't be right. Something just had to be wrong with his gear at this point! But what? What was wrong with it? He had examined it thoroughly and found no obvious faults with it. A thought appeared in Eren's mind.

 _Could it be that… someone is intentionally trying to sabotage me? But who would do that? I haven't made any enemies, have I?_

Eren was by himself at this point, Mikasa and Armin having gone to bed half-an-hour earlier. Wishing Eren good luck with his training. He had wanted to train with his Titan form tonight, but it looked like that wouldn't be happening, he needed all of his focus at trying to balance with his 3DMG at this point. Eren once again hoists himself up, something that required extreme strength considering he had to pull the rope that hoisted him, as well as try to balance out, he was putting a lot of pressure on his body at this moment.

 _Almost there! Just a little bit more and I'll be balancing._

He pulled one more time before he was hanging in mid-air. Eren smiled in joy, he had made it! He had finally managed to use his gear…

 _ **SMASH**_

 _GOD-DAMNIT._

Eren pushed himself up of the ground, blood trickling down from the wound on his forehead.

He was right, hitting his head was going to become a common occurrence. Footsteps could be heard heading towards him, he groaned internally.

"Whoever it is, just go away. I don't need anyone's pity right now."

"Who said I pity you?"

Eren's head shot up to see Annie Leonhart looking down on him impassively.

Eren quickly pushed himself to his feet, wobbling slightly after all the hits against his head. Annie stood across from him, eyes staring at the blood on Eren's face. A sigh escapes her lips as she came closer to his form, grabbing a small tissue from one of her pockets and dabbing the tissue against Eren's wound. He winched at the contact but doesn't stop her. Suddenly, all of the head damage he had suffered caught up to him and he collapsed to the floor, onto his knees. Well, he would of if Annie hadn't caught his form in her arms, and half carried, half dragged him towards the female barracks. They reached the foot of the steps into the porch and Annie lowered Eren onto the first step. She then continued to dab away the blood. A small frown on her usually impassive face.

Eren simply sat where he was, watching Annie's face intently as she wiped away his blood, the way her eyes moved back and forth from his eyes to his wound. The way her lips creased into a frown at his injury, how she gently placed her tissue against his wound to staunch the bleeding. Her actions betrayed her look. She passed herself of as an uncaring Individual, but the way she treated Eren disapproved that look.

"Why?" Eren asked, feeling like he needed to know.

Annie didn't even visibly react as she heard him, she simply continued to clean his face up. Eren frowned, he asked a question, it was only polite to respond. He reached up and grabbed her hand, stopping her work, she stared at his hand around her hand for a moment before sending an annoyed look at his face. Most people would've been intimidated by her look, but Eren had seen his Titan's reflection in the water before, he'd seen intimidating faces.

"Why?" he asked once again, gently this time.

Annie stared at Eren's face for a moment as if debating her next move, slowly, she lowered her hand from his face, tissue still in her hand and Eren's holding her wrist, gently.

"Why do you care?"

Annie had spoken those words so quietly, Eren was unsure if he had heard them in the first place. But Annie's slightly inquisitive look told him everything.

"What do you mean?" Eren was slightly befuddled by Annie's question, why does he care? What was it that he cared about?

"Why do you care… about what I think?"

Eren raised his eyebrows in surprise, he hadn't expected that question, and since when did Annie care about what he thought? But he had an answer to this question. At least he thought he did, he only hoped it was enough of an answer in the first place.

"Why wouldn't I care what you think? You've been nothing but a friend to me. I mean, not a talkative friend or anything like that. But a friend is still a friend, and I'm always happy to know what you think."

Annie's mouth opened slightly in shock at Eren's answer, unnoticed by herself, her hand being held by Eren was shivering. Eren noticed this and placed his hand firmly on-top of hers, letting her know that he was there for her. But Eren still wanted to know something, he had answered her question and now he wanted his question answered.

"Annie. Why are you doing this?" He asked gently, his hand still covered over Annie's, in an attempt to comfort her worries.

Annie looked up into Eren's eyes and, finally noticing her hand in his, pulled her hand away carefully, she didn't notice Eren's eyes look downcast for a moment. But it was soon gone.

"You're such a strange person. Eren Yeager. You interest me, it's simply that."

Eren sighed in annoyance.

"That's not an answer Annie, anyone can find someone interesting, that doesn't account for you making sure I'm okay!"

Annie humph as she stood back up and turned away from him. Eren frowned in anger at her uncaring attitude. It just pissed him off for some reason, maybe it was because he knew that it was all bullshit, no-one makes sure someone is fine and then pretends not to care, he wasn't sure, she just seemed to bring out the more aggressive side of himself of when he was a kid. He stands up and grabs Annie's shoulder, he feels her flinch uncontrollably at his contact and immediately feels angry at himself.

"Annie, I'm sorry. I just want to know why? Why bother helping me here and in the canteen?"

Annie stands in the same place for a while, Eren's hand still on her shoulder, but now it was there as a calming gesture, not as an aggressive one. Eren wonders whether he might've pushed his luck too far.

"I just wanted to know…"

Annie placed her hand on-top of Eren's, she squeezes the hand for a moment before turning around. Allowing Eren's hand to fall to his side. Annie stares into Eren's eyes, her blue eyes saying everything and nothing at the same time. She says nothing for a while, before she begins to pass by Eren. Eren continues to stare at where she was. Once Annie passed his form, she whispered something into his ear.

"I just wanted to know… what it was like… to have someone to care about me for once. And not because they could use me if they do."

Eren gasped as Annie continued forwards, into the female cadet's cabin. Eren just stares at where Annie last stood, her eyes had worried him, they looked… so dead, like there was no life behind them. What did that mean? Eren couldn't know, all he did know was that it terrified him. No-one should have eyes like that, so empty of life. So… bored with life.

It wasn't right in Eren's mind. No-one should look like that, especially not Annie. She may have an uncaring attitude up-front, but she had already proved that she was kind-hearted deep inside.

And that comment about people caring about, just to end up using her in the end, angered Eren greatly. He wasn't exactly sure why he was so angry but he definitely needed to let off some stress. He decided he was done with the 3DMG this night, he would inform Keith Shadis on his belief that his gear was sabotaged. He headed towards the forest, he was going to train in his Titan form. He'd probably end up practicing punches against trees to let of steam. He didn't like the way Annie looked at him, he hated it in-fact, at that silent moment, Eren wanted to hold her, tell her that she already knew what it was like to be cared about, with no ulterior motive behind it. He clenched his fists in anger, he hadn't done that though, he had just stood there like a statue, he just let her walk pass him, practically telling that he didn't care about her.

That wasn't the case though. It wasn't that he didn't care about her, it was that he was a coward. He actually cared about Annie, he didn't know how much exactly but he knew he cared. And he did absolutely nothing to show Annie that.

He passed by tree after tree as he headed to his training destination. He hated that look, Annie shouldn't have to have eyes like that. He reached his destination, an opening in the forest, the sae on that he always used.

He hated it.

That look.

That look shouldn't belong to anyone.

Especially Annie.

Eren stared for a while, his mind working in overdrive. He finally decided.

He would show that Annie that not everything was bad in this harsh world of theirs. He would show her. He was determined, he'd never let Annie have that look ever again, he'd show her that he cared about her, he didn't care about any kind of ulterior motive.

But first, he needed to prove his strength, he raised his hand to his mouth, he opened his mouth, and bit deep enough to draw blood.

The lightening that struck his form simply reaffirmed his decision, and the roar that erupted from his mouth let anything and everything know that he wouldn't fail.

He'd save this world, he'd kill every Titan, and he'd protect the ones he loved. He would show Annie that people could care about her.

He would do all these things, because he was Eren Yeager, and he would show everyone just how strong he actually is.

 _That was a day that would stay with me for a long time, I had just added another thing to my already, impressive list of things to achieve in my life. I trained quite fiercely that night, punching tree after tree, my hands constantly breaking apart and reforming, it felt great to be able to let off all that stress and anger. I went to bed that night, sleeping like a baby. I felt confident the next morning, even though I was at risk of being kicked out of training, I believed that I could balance with the 3DMG, but that mind was simply damaged._

"OKAY YOGHURT, LET'S SEE IF YOU HAVE THE BRAIN POWER TO ACCOMPLISH THIS SIMPLE TECHNIQUE! HOIST HIM UP".

Eren felt his body being pulled upwards, his feet left the ground and instantly Eren knew how that was going to end. Something was definitely wrong with his gear. However, he didn't have time to inform his instructor of this, as his head flew forward and smashed into the ground again.

He heard the laughing, he heard it and tried to ignore it. But the overbearing sound of Keith's mocking words and the rest of the cadets laughing hurt. He managed to push he head up and looked for anyone who still believed in him. Mikasa and Armin were showing their support in by the look in their eyes. He knew he could rely on them, but he wanted to check something, his eyes scanned for that tell-tale blonde hair he knew. He found it and looked into her eyes. Annie Leonhart was giving Eren a fierce glare, almost as if she was daring him to give up. He stared for a moment longer before her mouth moved.

'Get up', her lips mouthed those words, and Eren suddenly felt empowered, he heaved himself to his feet, he ignored the snickering from the other cadets, he glared into Shadis's eyes and spoke.

"Sir, my gear is faulty. Let me try with a different set."

Silence covers the training field, as everyone stares at the pair, Eren, not even flinching in the slightest at Shadis's glowering look.

"You think your gear is faulty, do you Yoghurt?"

Keith wasn't shouting at this point, his voice was quiet and sharp, like a blade, it was almost like he was daring Eren to continue his request. But Eren was certain about this.

"I do sir! I refuse to believe that I can't perform this exercise!"

Keith said nothing, just lowered his head to Eren's level and stared into the cadet's eyes. It was like he was searching for something, anything.

"Okay Yeager, I will allow this, but I swear. If you cannot perform this test correctly, I will personally see to your exit of my training camp".

The threat was clear to everyone, if Eren didn't accomplish this test, he will never stand a chance at joining the army ever again. The fact that Shadis said Eren's last name correctly just meant how very serious Shadis was about his threat. Stare down over, Keith stands up straight and looks towards another cadet.

"CADET WAKNER, GIVE YOGURT YOUR GEAR, WE WILL SEE IF YOGHURT IS RIGHT ABOUT HIS GEAR SOON ENOUGH."

The short-blond haired cadet known as Thomas Wagner nervously strolled over to Eren, they swap their 3DMG and Eren heads back to the winch. The teaching assistants hook him up to the winch and get ready to pull.

Eren takes a deep breath and allows his eyes to scan over some of the watchers.

Armin, who looked worried for Eren, plain and simple, he didn't want his best friend to be embarrassed in-front of the entire training corp.

Mikasa, who seemed to be looking both worried and annoyed at something, Eren briefly wondered at what before refocusing on the task at hand.

Reiner, who was giving Eren an encouraging look, certain that his friend was more than capable to overcome this task. Bertolt stood next to him, smiling nervously, it was his own way of showing his support to Eren.

Krista was also giving Eren her support in the form of a huge angelic smile. Whilst Ymir stood next to her, her face the picture of disinterest in anything and everything that wasn't to do with the small girl next to her.

But Eren wanted to know what Annie would look like. He was the biggest conundrum of a person he had ever met, and he was curious to see what her eyes would portray. He found her in the same place as before. Her face still incredibly impassive as always, but her eyes, her eyes weren't their usual "stare though you rather than at you" self. They had a certain energy in them, they almost screamed for Eren to keep pushing ahead. It was strange to see such emotion in those eyes and Eren was determined not to fail her.

"READY YOGURT?"

"READY SIR".

"OKAY, HOIST HIM UP".

Eren felt the pull of the winch lift his body of the ground. He felt his harness pull and stretch to accommodate the sudden pull of gravity. Eren reached the optimal height and strained to keep himself balanced. He noticed how much easier it was to attain his balance, and how much less his gear was trying to topple him. He was right, his pervious gear was damaged in some way. Eren takes the moment of accomplishment to stare at his fellow cadets, they all looked shocked that he had been right about gear. Armin was ecstatic, his best friend had proved everyone wrong. Mikasa was still looking extremely annoyed, almost annoyed as if someone had foiled a plan of hers. Eren was going to have to ask her about that later. Reiner and Bertolt were clapping loudly at Eren's achievement, both happy that their new friend wasn't leaving anytime soon. Krista looked absolutely jovial as she hugged Ymir happily, Ymir was smiling at the girl in her arms before giving Eren a quick nod of her head.

And Annie, Annie had allowed for a very small smile to play across her face, so small that if you didn't look hard enough, you'd think it wasn't there in the first place. But Eren saw it, he was sure of that. And he was happy that he did, just another step to proving to Annie that people could care about her, and not have an ulterior motive behind it.

"WELL I'LL BE DAMMED AND TURNED INTO TITAN FOOD, YOU ACTUALLY MADE IT YOGHURT. You were right about the gear Yogurt, and you have quite the skill with the 3D Manoeuvre Gear, I'm glad I didn't throw your ass out due to faulty gear. LOWER HIM DOWN, TRAINING IS COMPLETE FOR THE DAY."

Everyone started to leave the training field, probably to go to the canteen and get their last meal of the day.

Eren was lowered to the ground and unhooked from the winch, instantly he was surrounded by Reiner and Bertolt who hoisted him onto their shoulders.

"Hell yea Yeager! You show them how it's done!" Reiner shouted as they carried Eren across to the canteen, Eren laughing jovially at their antics all the way. They put him down onto his feet and Reiner pats Eren on the shoulder, much more gently than his last pat on the back. The two tallest cadets walked past Eren and into the canteen, to get some a table for all of them. Krista came us beside Eren and hugged his side.

"Congrats Eren! I knew you could do it! So, did Ymir, she just didn't want to say anything."

Krista couldn't continue her praising as Ymir walked up behind her and picked her up. Placing her over her shoulders, and walking into the canteen, a pouting Krista on her shoulder. Eren hears Armin and Mikasa walk up beside of him on each side.

"I knew you'd make it Eren. You're far too stubborn to fail."

Eren nudges Armin in the shoulder jokingly, he had come out of his old shell over the year they were orphans. His grandfather being forced into marching to his own death in the name of humanity, had shown Armin the way the world works. He claps Eren on the shoulder before walking into the canteen as well.

Eren turned to Mikasa and was baffled by her look, it wasn't the look of joy at his success he expected. Instead it was a small worried frown that plagued her face, she didn't even acknowledge him as she strolled on by, into the canteen. Eren stared after her, his face the picture of concern at his sister's retreating form.

"She's worried about you."

Eren turned to the voice to see Annie, standing a few feet away from him, her face as impassive as always. Her arms wrapped around her chest.

"I know she's worried about me. She doesn't need to… but she does."

Annie nods.

"You're right. You don't need looking after, I can tell."

Eren gives Annie a strange look, not quite sure what she was actually referring to, but he nods at her statement anyway. Both of them stand where they stood, letting the silence cover the area, it wasn't necessarily uncomfortable but it wasn't really accommodating at the same time. Not knowing what to do Eren coughed into his hand to alleviate the growing awkwardness. Annie raises a blonde eyebrow at Eren's actions but he simply shrugs his shoulders.

"Oh yeah. I almost forgot! Thanks for supporting me. I also wanted to say something to you."

Annie says nothing, just stares at him to continue.

"Annie, I promise you, that I will show you that people can care about you without ulterior motives."

Annie didn't respond, she just walked past Eren and up to the canteen door.

"Annie?"

The blond haired girl stopped at the door, and turns her head to look at Eren in the eyes.

"Thank-you… Eren Yeager." She then opens the door and walks inside.

Eren stood at the bottom of the stairs, Annie's last words replaying over in his head, he was unsure of what she had meant when saying that.

 _Thank-you? Thank-you for what? Thank-you for making a promise?_

Eren had no idea, but that didn't stop the smile growing on his face.

He may not know exactly why Annie had thanked him, but he wouldn't complain, her thanking him just meant one thing to him.

He was making progress, progress at showing Annie just what Humanity had to offer.

It was unfortunately slow progress, but progress nonetheless. And with that Eren stepped inside the canteen, just one more step to accomplishing his weight dreams.

 _That was one of the better days. I had proved to everyone that I could do and would do it. Only a few more things happened during our first year of training, most of them weren't that great to be honest. The first incident was a couple of days after I had successfully showed my skill with the 3DMG. I had not been talking to Armin as much as I probably should've, I honestly wasn't even sure what he did most days after training, I had assumed that he had made some other friends or something along those lines. But that wasn't it, I wish I had found out sooner, but I'm still thankful I found out at all, Armin was keeping these incidents secret to me and Mikasa, probably in a roundabout way to keep us safe or something. It's funny, he seemed to have forgot that it was my job to keep him safe. It started when I woke earlier than usual for training. I would usually just barely make it in time for training due to my nightly "activities", but that day, I found myself waking an hour earlier than usual._

Eren hooked the final belt across his chest, making sure it was secure, he put on his cadet uniform and exited out of the male barracks. Most people were still asleep, Reiner, Bertolt were both snoring exceptionally loudly, Eren chuckled, you had to wonder how anyone managed to get to sleep with those two. Eren was pretty sure even the girls in the barracks next door complained about the snoring at one point.

Having nothing to do for an hour, Eren headed towards the canteen, it was the place most people headed to when they found themselves with some spare time. The brunette teen strolled up the steps to the canteen and casually opened the door. He took a moment to look around, it was considerably empty compared to most times. Only a few people were up at the moment, he noticed the tell-tale blonde hair of a certain impassive girl, and began to head towards her, that was until he saw that…

His best friend; Armin Arlert was currently being harassed by someone he didn't know. Eren, began to storm his way over to his distressed friend, suddenly he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder, and he turned, furious at whoever thought they could stop him helping his friend. But when he saw those expressionless eyes he found so intriguing, his rage subsided somewhat. His face was the picture of confusion, why would she stop him from helping his friend?

"You can't always be there to save him…"

What? What did she mean by that? Who said that he couldn't always be there for him? Who dictated this so-called "fact"?

No, he didn't like that idea, his whole principle was built upon protecting those he cared for, and Eren would be damned before he allowed one of his friends to suffer. Shrugging Annie's hand of his shoulder, he headed towards Armin's abusers. He knew that he probably offended Annie with simply dismissing her like that, but she didn't understand, the last time Eren didn't act, he lost his mother, and whilst the situation he found himself in wasn't as serious as back then, the principle behind it still applied.

Eren would never let inaction take over again when his cherished ones were in trouble. He walked up behind Armin, who had just flinched from a particularly aggressive shove. Armin was scared, his aggressor was decidedly bulkier, taller and more intimidating than him, so he couldn't do anything against him. It was just like those times back in Shinganshina, where he would be bullied, but this time there would be no Eren or Mikasa to save him.

Well… that's what he thought anyway. Until suddenly a hand was placed on his shoulder, and he was pulled behind someone slightly taller than him. He didn't recognise the person at first, but when the person turned their head to give Armin a look, he instantly knew who was shielding him.

"Eren?"

"Hey Armin, give me a second would ya? I just gotta' deal with this asshole first."

The bully scoffed at Eren's insult, his form at least half-a-foot taller than Eren's. He pushed Eren in the shoulder, in an attempt at intimidating him, but Eren didn't even blink, this punk was nothing compared to the smiling Titan, or any Titan at that point. Eren would've actually laughed at the situation if Armin wasn't in danger.

"How long?"

The bully sneered.

"How long what?"

"How long… have you been doing this?"

The bully laughed as he lowered his head to Eren's level, a vicious glare in his eyes.

"Since we started training, weaklings like him don't belong here…"

Now, since the tragic day Eren lost his mother, he had managed to curb his viciousness that he gained as a child, but curb didn't mean gotten rid of. More like; supressed in all honesty.

So, it didn't come as a surprise for Eren when his head shot forward, and smashed dead centre into the bully's face, he didn't let up there though, Eren grabbed the back of the bully's hair as he screamed in pain, and he brought the face down halfway to meet his rising knee.

 _ **CRUNCH**_

That was the sound of Eren's knee probably snapping the bully's nose with ease. Eren couldn't help the disturbing smile from forming on his face as he allowed the bully to fall to the floor, holding his face in extreme pain. Thankfully, he managed to wipe the smile from his face the moment the canteen door swung open. Keith Shadis storming inside.

"WHAT IN THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN HERE?"

Keith's sunken eyes, stopped on Eren and the other cadet collapsed on the floor.

"YOGHURT, ADAMS, GET YOUR FUCKING ASSES FRONT AND CENTRE, BEFORE I COME OVER THERE AND SO HELP ME GOD, IF I DO YOU'LL BOTH REGRET IT".

Eren marched over to the head instructor, almost regretting attacking the other cadet, however he smothered this feeling, remembering that he did it to protect his friend. And he'd do it again any day. Eren stood in-front of the instructor, the injured cadet known as "Adams" wobbling besides him. Keith stared down both of them, he watched as Adam's almost fell back at his glare, he watched as Eren stared back at him, not flinching in the slightest at Shadis's death glare.

"Okay, I'm going to ask once, and once only. What happened here?" Instantly Adam's begins to ramble.

"Sir, I was just relaxing in the canteen when suddenly, this maniac just walks up to me and breaks my nose!"

Keith stares at Adam's and then turns his gaze onto Eren.

"Is this true Yeager?"

"No sir!"

"Then what happened?"

Eren scowled inwardly, he didn't want to tell Keith about Armin's bullying, he hated the idea of belittling his friend. He had to think of something to say that wouldn't get Armin involved. But his mind was failing him.

"I can say what happened sir!"

Everyone turned their heads to see someone, who no-one expected to speak up.

Marching towards Keith was the usually stoic and quiet cadet; Annie Leonhart, her face showing no emotion.

She stood next to Eren, as she began her explanation.

"Sir, Cadet Adam's has been constantly harassing a large number of other cadets during our training. Cadet Yeager, before today didn't know this, he entered the canteen to find Cadet Adams harassing a fellow Cadet. Cadet Yeager intervened and stopped Cadet Adam's disgustful behaviour."

Eren stared at Annie in a new light, something had changed in her since he passed his 3DMG test. He wasn't sure what exactly, but she seemed more alive, to him anyway.

Keith showed no emotion as he absorbed the information given to him, the rule was simple when it came to Cadets abusing fellow Cadets. They deserved any retribution they got, besides murder and mutilation. And if what Cadet Leonhart said was true, then Cadet Yeager was not at fault in this commotion.

"Who was Cadet Adam's harassing?"

Eren flinched in his mind, he really didn't want Armin involved in this because of him. But he could already see Armin begin to raise his hand, however he was cut off by none-other than Annie again.

"He was harassing me sir! I personally didn't care about what Cadet Adams said sir! But Cadet Yeager found it personally offensive that a Cadet would harass a fellow Cadet, sir!"

Eren was speechless, Annie was sticking up for him? Had he affected her that much in the short time they had known each other? He wasn't really sure of how to feel about this. He felt that their connection had deepened because of this act of unheard kindness from the stoic girl. At this point, Adams was visibly shaking, his voice was failing him, he couldn't even defend himself verbally, he was that worried, and all that came out of his mouth were mumbled meaningless words.

Keith had heard enough.

"CADET ADAMS, PACK YOUR FUCKING BAGS AND GET THE HELL OUT OF MY TRAINING CAMP."

"Bu- But sir!"

"ARE YOUR EARS FILLED WITH WAX ADAMS? OR DID I STUTTER? GET YOU'RE SHIT AND GET OUT. BEFORE I INSERT MY FOOT SO FAR UP YOUR ASS, YOU'LL BE ABLE TO SPIT-SHINE MY BOOT WITHOUT OPENING YOUR MOUTH".

Adams ran so fast out of the canteen, it was like a Titan was chasing after him.

Not being needed here anymore Keith turned to leave but stopped at the doorway.

"I do not want to hear about any more trouble to do with you Yeager, do you understand Cadet?"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Good, I have high hopes for you Yeager, don't squander it being a dipshit!"

"I don't intend to sir!"

Keith walked out of the door.

"TRAINING STARTS IN TWENTY MINUTES, EVERYONE BETTER BE READY".

Eren sighed in relief as he turned to Annie, he opened his mouth to thank her.

"Thank-you Annie. Honestly."

Annie said nothing at first, she just stared at him, her stare slowly turned into a scowl and Eren suddenly felt uncomfortable. She walks up to Eren and whispers into his ear.

"Never shrug me of like that again. Or I'll kick your ass, understood, Yeager?"

Eren never nodded so hard in his life.

"Good."

With that Annie walked by Eren and continued outside.

Armin walked up to Eren and thanked him profusely, as well as apologising for causing him all this trouble. Eren just nodded along with what his best friend said, but his mind was completely elsewhere, it never ceased to amaze him how every time he talked with Annie, he would be left feeling a kind of burning passion rise within his chest. He had no idea what it was, but the feeling was certainly pleasant.

A smile formed on his face, as he remembered his friend right in-front of him.

First; make sure Armin's okay.

Second; smile about Annie.

Third; hide smile, Mikasa's heading this way.

 _I made sure Armin was okay, thankfully, Adams had never actually hit Armin before and just pushed him around a bit, I was thankful for that, otherwise if Adams had been hitting Armin, I might've done something I'd have regretted. Nothing happened for a few months after that, we trained, slept and trained again. And soon enough, instructor Shadis informed us that our next training would be survival training. We'd be sent into the forest for a week with nothing but some camping gear and our own wits, we were all placed into groups of nine each and sent in a random direction inside the forest. I ended up with Krista, Ymir, Jean, Reiner, Bertolt, Annie, Mikasa and Armin. I myself wondered what the chances were that I'd end up with people that I know personally. But I wouldn't complain. Anyway, we had been surviving well enough for most of the week, however, knowing my luck something just had to go wrong. It happened on the sixth day._

Eren watched the fire burn away during the night, it was his turn to watch the camp and make sure everyone stayed safe. Whilst there wasn't supposed to be real danger within the forest, Keith had stated that different groups are allowed to steal from one another.

Eren sighed in annoyance at this survival training, he hadn't been able to go train in his Titan form at all during this week. Eren grabbed the fire-poker stick on the floor and stabbed at the fire, checking the wood to make sure it would still burn for a long time. Everyone else were currently asleep, shared between four medium sized tents. Two for the girls, and two for the boys. Eren wondered briefly when his shift would be over, he couldn't recall how long he had left to wait for Krista to take over his shift.

Suddenly he heard the sound of rustling and Eren Was immediately alert, thankfully his worry was unneeded as the sound of someone coming out of a tent was heard. Eren turned his head to see the small blond girl known as Krista walk towards him. Eren waved at her and she waved back as she lowered herself onto the floor next to Eren.

"Hey Eren, you ready to get some sleep?"

Eren simply yawned before covering his mouth in embarrassment, the girl next to him giggling. The pair descended into silence for a few moments.

"Well, guess I'd better get some sleep. Night Krista, give me a shout if something happens."

Eren stands and dusts himself of, Krista nodding at him. That's when he heard it, the leaves rustling in the wind, but the wind was almost non-existent at this time. Eren turns back to Krista to warn her when he sees what he had dreaded.

Krista was being held at knife-point by a burly looking man. Her face the picture of fear. Eren opened his mouth to shout when the bandit holding Krista closed his knife towards her throat. Eren scowled darkly as the bandit smirked, the bandit tied a rag around Krista's mouth before throwing her over his shoulder, Eren was about to intervene when suddenly he felt a strike against the back of his head and he fell over, unconscious.

Annie groaned as she pushed herself up from her sleep. Being careful to avoid waking her tent-mate; Mikasa, it was safe to say that the atmosphere of their tent had been less than comforting, Mikasa's constant glares had irritated the blond girl to no end. But she didn't word her irritation, that would mean admitting she cared what Mikasa thought. She stretched her arms out before crawling out of the tent, to see something that instantly set off alarm bells in her mind.

No-one was on watch, and the fire had burned out. She thought about whose shift it was last, Krista came to her mind, so she set off for her tent Krista shared with Ymir. Uncaringly opening the tent she found no sign of the smaller blond girl, she only found the taller brown haired girl, snoring with a little bit of drool falling from her mouth. This set off even more alarm bells, if she wasn't in her tent, then where was she?

Closing the flap of the tent, she turned to see Jean crawling out of his shared tent with Eren. He stood up and looked around confusedly before addressing Annie.

"Have you seen Eren? He didn't come to the tent at all."

Annie's eyes widened slightly as she rushed over to Jean and grabbed his collar.

"What do you mean, he didn't come to the tent?" she whispered venomously, something unknown to her gripped her chest, she hazard to call it worry if she had the time. Jean just glared at her.

"It means exactly what I said, he didn't come to the tent at all!"

Annie let go of Jean's collar, not really sure what to do. She didn't know what to think had happened to Eren, she didn't want to in all honestly, all of the gruesome fates she had imagined fell upon him made her sick to her core.

"We need to get everyone up."

Annie turned to the girls tents before Jean grabbed her wrist.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Krista is missing as well, I think something might've happened to them."

Annie didn't look back at Jean as she moved to wake up the rest of the girls, trusting Jean to wake the rest of the guys. Eren and Krista had to have been taken, but by who? And why?

Another team momentarily came to mind before she immediately dismissed that idea, a Cadet wouldn't kidnap another cadet. So that left those of the unsavoury sort.

Bandits, they must've been kidnapped by bandits, Annie did not like the idea of Eren and Krista being kidnapped by bandits at all, especially if they were human traffickers. Annie took a deep breath. It wouldn't matter either way.

She was going to get Eren, and whoever kidnapped them wouldn't live long enough to regret it.

Eren groaned in pain as he pushed himself up.

"Heh, looks like the boy's up!" an unfamiliar voice spoke.

Eren opened his weary eyes to find himself no longer at his camp. Instead he now found himself bound by rope, leaning against a tree, the sight of three gangly men and one burly man sitting around a camp-fire. The one who spoke was the burly one, who sauntered over towards Eren, a sickening grin upon his face. Eren scowled at the man, before remember that Krista was kidnapped as well. However, before he could ascertain where she was, he was grabbed by his hair and pulled upwards to the man's face.

"Hmm… I suppose you'll make some money on the market. Maybe if we rough you up a bit you might get a bit more, there are some real sicko's out there."

Eren never wanted to head-but a man so badly in his life.

Without warning, Eren was mercilessly thrown back to the floor.

He looked up at his kidnapper, who grinned at the poor boy before sending a vicious kick into Eren's face.

A crack was heard as blood gushed out of his nose. Eren distinctly heard a loud "No" from who he could only assume was Krista before a resounding slapping sound was heard. And that was when Eren no longer cared for his own well-being. Ignoring his bloody nose, Eren spat at the man above him in defiance. The man only laughed mockingly before once again sending his foot into Eren's face, this time it wasn't his nose that went crack, the angle the man had kicked at had managed to snap his jaw-bone.

Pain ran through Eren as he couldn't even hold his face in pain, tears defiantly fell from his eyes and the man responded by chuckling evilly.

"Stop it! Please!"

"I said shut-up bitch!"

Another slap was heard and Eren felt his rage overcome his pain once again. No longer being able to speak due to his jaw being broke, Eren only managed to kick at his attacker's leg with his own. Sadly, the angle at which he attacked was awkward and left his attack easily avoidable, the man gasped mockingly before dramatically jumping away from his kick. His fellow bandits laughed with him as the burly one strolled back over to Eren.

"Big mistake kid. It's almost like you want this to happen. You see I can't have you kicking us in our sleep, can I?"

Eren didn't have time to react before the burly man stomped on his ankle, another resounding snap was heard and Eren couldn't even cry out in pain as his left ankle was snapped in two.

"Please! Have mercy! Please, I'll do anything!"

Those were the words Eren did not want to hear. As the man who was previously beating on Eren had now turned around and walked towards the voice of Krista.

"Anything you say?"

Eren's rage and pain turned into extreme panic, these men were monsters, what they had planned for Krista would be far worse than anything they could do to him. He needed to gain his attention again, but how?

The man moved over to where Krista presumably was and lowered himself to her level.

"You do this, and your friend will live, you understand little girl?"

There was no verbal answer but Eren had to assume Krista had nodded as the man stood back up and lowered his hand to his belt-buckle, Eren couldn't allow this. He forced his Titan regeneration into his human form, he _MADE_ it heal his jaw, if you looked closely enough, and you'd be able to see steam rising from Eren's lower face.

"You leave her alone, you sick fuck!"

Silence covered the area as everyone stared at the young man, bound by rope on the floor. The burly man from before stormed over, anger clear on his face,

"Who the fuck said you could talk eh? How the hell did you manage to talk in the first place?"

Eren didn't reply to the man's demands, he simply sat himself up, careful not to aggravate his ankle, his healing in his human form was incredibly weak compared to his Titan form, and he should never have tried to force it through his human body as it left him much weaker than usual. But Eren didn't care, he needed to get the man to take him away, then he could save Krista with ease.

"You think you're so tough eh? You disgusting scum! People like you just need to die!"

Eren's anger was palpable, his entire rage was focused on this one man, a man who dared even attempt to defile one his friends. But the man above him just smirked in response as he lifted the boy onto his one good foot.

"Alright boy. We're going to have a one-to-one away from here, and we'll see if you're so… angry after I'm through with you."

Eren didn't know where they would go, but he couldn't really stop the man from dragging him along, his one good foot trying to keep up, whilst his broken one dragged behind. Before long he was thrown against a tree and allowed to fall to the floor. His captor brandishing a knife above him, Eren thought the man was going to kill him when suddenly his ropes were cut. Freeing Eren's form.

"You think you're tough kid? C'mon then, I'm right here, try to kill me!"

Eren knew what was going on, the man knew he couldn't walk and the amount of blood that had pooled from his nose had drained him, but Eren still managed to smile as he raised his right hand to his mouth.

"You want me to try and kill you? I'm afraid you're wrong scum. I'm not going to do that."

Eren bit into his hand harshly.

 _I'M GOING TO EXTERMINATE YOU!_

The man didn't even have time to react before he was picked up, and his right arm was torn from his shoulder. The man screamed in absolute agony, but Eren didn't care, he revelled in the man's pathetic screams, his lipless mouth smiled in glee as he then tore away his captor's other arm, the screaming like music to his ears. Eren wanted to torture this man, he wanted to rip and tear every piece of him away, and he wanted to watch the man's face contort in utter despair and agony as he now found himself on the receiving end.

Eren wanted to do that, but he didn't, he remembered Krista, a friend in need, he needed to save her before the other kidnappers realised something was amiss. Quickly snapping the man in half, Eren threw the armless corpse of the man deeper into the forest, hopefully no-one would find it. He had a friend to save.

"Boss has been gone for a while guys. What do you think he's doing?"

"Probably just kicking the shit out of that kid."

Krista was shell-shocked, she and Eren had been kidnapped, Eren had been beaten viciously, and she had almost consented to… to… And now Eren was alone with that monster, having who knows what happen to him! She hated how weak she was, how little she was, maybe if she were bigger and stronger, then this whole scenario would never have happened, she felt tears begin to prick her eyes, she had just gotten a friend of hers killed, one of the only male friends she had that didn't constantly flirt with her and call her an angel, Eren treated her as any girl, and now he was probably being murdered as she sat there, bound by rope, surrounded by men who would violate her, whenever they decided to do so.

Just then, the floor shook, and again, and again.

The floor kept shaking, like mini-earthquakes occurring one after another.

"What the hell is that?"

"Beats me, probably just some shit happening underneath us."

But they were wrong, the quakes were coming faster now and much more powerful, the trees shook and the leaves were torn from their branches.

Something was coming, and it was huge, irritated and very, very angry.

Krista didn't even have a second to understand what was happening before a giant figure stormed into the clearing and crushed one of her captors underneath its foot. The thing didn't waste any more time before it snatched up the two remaining kidnappers and brutally crushed them in its hands, blood spurting from in-between its fingers. That's when she knew what it was.

 _Titan_.

The word scared her more than anything in this world, the species of monster that stood right in-front of her. She began to cry involuntary, she knew she probably should've stayed quiet as the Titan now turned towards her and lowered its hand at her. She closed her eyes and waited for death. But none came, she didn't feel any different than before, she dared open her eyes to see something that would stay with her for the rest of her life.

The Titan, was looking at her with worried eyes as it held her gently up to his face. She didn't know how to react, there was none of the extreme anger that it had showed towards her captors before, only worry was now etched onto its face. Krista didn't know why but she started to cry, all of the events of the night catching up with her. But then something even more surprising happened, the Titan whined at her.

At least, Krista assumed it was a whine, it sounded like what a dog would do when its owner was sad, the sound this time however was far more guttural and rough sounding, a normal person would find it almost scary, but Krista found it almost comforting that a Titan was that worried about her well-being. She managed to force out what she hoped was a reassuring smile, but the Titan just made a noise that sounded like a cross between a scoff and a sigh.

" **Ohkeh?**

Krista froze in shock, the Titan holding her had just spoken, it sounded very unnatural, like its voice had an internal echo within it, and the Titan also looked incredibly uncomfortable doing so in the first place, almost like talking was something unnatural to it.

"Wh-What?"

The Titan almost growled in annoyance from the looks of it.

" **Ohkeh?"**

Krista gasped, the Titan was actually asking her if she was okay. She only managed a nod in response. The Titan seemed to accept this and brought her closer to its face before moving its other hand towards her. She flinched, assuming that it was going to kill her now, but no pain came once again, and instead she felt her body become no-longer bound by the rope. She opened her eyes again to see the Titan drop the rope to the floor, it had somehow gently removed her rope and released her.

"Yo-You're no-not going to eat me?"

The Titan just rolled its eyes in irritation and Krista felt almost offended at the rude gesture.

"What!? I'm I not good enough to eat!?"

The Titan just smirked at her, or managed something that resembled a smirk and nodded mischievously, it then stuck its tongue out as if spitting away a bad taste.

"HEY!" Krista shouted at the Titan who simply made a noise similar to chuckling in its throat. But then its face became serious again.

" **Sssssaaaffffff, no wuhurry!"**

Although its speech was difficult to make out properly, Krista understood what it was trying to say.

 _Safe, no worries. But why would a Titan act like this? Was it an extremely rare and unheard of abnormal? It just feels like I'm talking to a human being, a particularly huge human being in the form a Titan, but a human being nonetheless._

"Uh… , what exactly or who exactly are you?"

The Titan looked momentarily amused by Krista's name for it, before it narrowed its eyes and focused intently on its next few words.

" **Ffffwend to uhmahity!"**

Krista was amazed and was about to question the Titan further when suddenly the Titan's ears began to twitch sporadically. Without warning, it lowered Krista to the floor and lowered its head towards her, it brought its forefinger up to its lipless mouth and spoke.

" **Keep Secrrret".**

Krista only managed a nod before the Titan stood back to its full height and sprinted off, back into the forest. Leaving her by herself, of she believed it was by herself, as soon after she began to hear familiar voices close in on her direction.

 _Ymir?_

Her inward question was right as soon after, the taller girl ran into the clearing and immediately enveloped Krista into a caring embrace, an embrace which Krista, didn't know she desperately needed, but she did, she wrapped her shorter arms around Ymir and allowed a few tears to fall from her eyes.

"How did you find me?" Krista managed to mumble out.

"We found some footprints that weren't army official boots, we tracked them to here."

"We?"

Suddenly, everyone in Krista's group rushed into the clearing, even a few not originally from their survival group, like Sasha, Marco and Armin, all of which were from the same group.

"Yeah, when we found the boot prints, we made sure to find Sasha, as she is the best at tracking out of all of us!"

Suddenly, Mikasa was upon the pair, a panicked look on her face.

"Krista, where's Eren!?"

That's when Krista remembered, how she could just forget about Eren like that!?

She looks at Mikasa who had Annie standing a little way behind her, also with a much less obvious worried look.

"He… He saved me…"

Everyone in the clearing looked at Krista intently at that, he saved her? So where was he? This was exactly what Mikasa asked next.

"Where is he then? What did he save you from!?"

She was practically begging now, desperate for any information that the worse hadn't happened.

"Th-They, hurt him. Br-Broke his nose, his jaw and an-kle, he kept shouting at them to stop them from turning to me!" Krista was in tears now, she had just sat there and let Eren take the hits, but she was so scared, what could she do? The clearings atmosphere darkened intensely at what Krista said. Reiner looked absolutely angry at himself, blaming all of this on his ineptitude, he should've stayed awake, should've taken the shift after Eren so he could protect him. Bertolt just comforted his best friend, placing his arms around his shoulders as they both feared the worse.

Armin was shaking, his eyes darting from one place to another, trying desperately not to believe what was being said, he held back tears, Eren wasn't dead, he couldn't be dead! He promised that they would both explore the outside world. Both find the sea. He turned his gaze upon Mikasa who had already fallen to her knees. Jean was grimacing, he and Eren might not have seen eye to eye most of the time, but he wouldn't wish this fate upon him.

But it was Annie who reacted the worse, if you knew her that is, outwardly, she seemed just as uninterested and impassive as always, but if you were to look into her eyes, you'd see that same look that Eren hated passionately, her eyes were empty of life, it was like her soul had died.

It was Marco who broke the silence, nervously.

"Th-Then what happened?"

Krista swallowed the lump in her throat, she had to at least tell them, she felt Mikasa deserved that much.

"One of them, the leader I think, he was beating Eren up, but he got bored with him and I begged them to stop, I'd do anything I said! The man stopped and turned to me, he… he tried to…"

She couldn't finish it, and Ymir simply held the petite girl tighter, whispering sweet nothing to her ear. Krista managed to find the courage to continue.

"Somehow, Eren shouted at him, they broke his jaw and he still managed to shout! He called them out, insulted them, he was so furious, I'd never seen anyone so angry. The man stormed over and dragged him away, I… I don't know what happened to him after that… Eren saved me and I don't even know what happened to him!" Krista remembered to keep the Titan a secret, her friends didn't know about the other bandits, so she was glad they weren't asking about that.

Everyone was shocked, even in so much pain Eren still put Krista ahead of himself, and he subjugated himself to save Krista from a horrible fate. No-one knew what to say after that, what could you say? But this gave Mikasa a small amount of hope.

"So… You didn't see him…"

The question was left unfinished, Mikasa unable to speak the words she so feared. Krista nodded, she hadn't seen him… die.

"Then, there's a chance he's still alive!"

Everyone looked towards the voice, Armin was looking around hurriedly as he tried to have hope.

"Krista doesn't know what happened to him! He might've beaten his captor, he might've escaped! He might've…"

"WAKE UP ARMIN, HE'S GONE".

Everyone jumped at the shouting, they turned to see Annie, glaring viciously at the bowl haired blond boy. Mikasa was about to shout back at her until she saw her face.

Her usual impassive face was gone, replaced by an angry, yet defeated look. Mikasa didn't know what to think, she had always pictured Annie as simply using Eren, but her face right now spoke against that idea.

Reiner walked towards her, his eyes having a knowing look.

"Annie, wha…"

Annie struck out, something had affected deeply with Eren's supposed death.

"HE LIED TO ME! HE PROMISED THAT… that…"

Annie stopped mid-sentence, going quiet as her eyes widen largely at whatever she was seeing, whatever it was she ran towards it, and everyone followed where she was looking to have their eyes widen as well.

Leaning against a tree, looking very much worse for wear was Eren Yeager, smirking at them all despite his injuries. He looked at the blond girl running towards him and smiled reassuringly.

"Hate to break it to you Annie, but I never break a promise."

Annie stopped in-front of Eren and looked him over, worry etched on her face for only Eren to see. Eren for his part smiled at her. Annie didn't even check if he actually needed help or not, she immediately placed one of his arms over her shoulder for support.

Eren smirked at her actions. But Eren winced when he caught his right foot against a twig, the one with the broken ankle. It sucked but when he transformed into a Titan, it had healed all of his injuries previously, but he realised that he wouldn't be able to show up looking completely fine, it'd bring up far too much suspicion, so when he had melted away his Titan form, he had to re-break everything except for his jaw. Let's just say it wasn't pleasant, but he needed to do, he couldn't risk any kind of questions being asked of him. It was alright though, his injuries would heal pretty well by tomorrow and he'd be perfectly healthy, after a couple of rest days.

Annie brought Eren over to Krista, who was looking at Eren as if he was a ghost.

"Er-Eren?" she asked unsurely, Eren simply smiled at her.

"You okay Krista?"

Eren didn't even see Krista move but suddenly she was hugging him around the waist, unfortunately, she accidentally stepped on his broken ankle. Eren shouted in pain as the small girl jumped away, apologising profusely. Eren couldn't help it, he laughed out loud, such a strange day of events. He had expected people to be glad to see he was alive, what he didn't expect was to have not only Mikasa and Armin to hug him, but also for Reiner and Bertolt to join in on the hug as well. He smiled as his friends made sure he was real and not some kind of illusion, Eren managed to look over Reiner giving him a gentle noogie to see Annie looking into Eren's eyes.

Unlike before when they were empty of life, they were now sparkling slightly, Eren could see what little emotion she allowed to shine through her eyes and it warmed his heart that he caused such emotions to appear within her. It also sobered him mentally, he had heard her screaming and realised that he may have affected her more deeply, than even he anticipated. He wondered what kind of life must she had lived beforehand to become so detached from society?

But, then again, whose life wasn't affected by the world they lived in?

After everyone had hugged Eren or made sure he was alive. Mikasa had to ask.

"Eren, what happened?"

"I was dragged off, but the idiot thought that because my ankle was broken, that I was completely incapacitated, he even cut my ropes thinking he could watch me squirm or something."

"But how did you get away?"

"Well, it's pretty funny really. The idiots forgot to check me for any weapons, so I still had the survival knife the instructors gave us. So, when he wasn't looking, I stabbed him."

Mikasa felt a chill go through her at Eren's casual indifference to killing a fellow man, a monster that man may have been, but a man nonetheless. She wondered just how deeply affected he had been by watching his mother die. But Reiner cut into her thoughts.

"Who cares how he got away! What matters is that he's still here! And right now, we need to get Eren to the medical ward!"

Annie immediately appeared at Eren's side again, and attempted to support him again, before Reiner butted in, waving his arms about in a disapproving manner.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Me and Bert will take him back to camp, and explain everything to instructor Shadis, were both tall enough to carry Eren without him injuring his ankle even more."

Annie stared at Reiner, almost daring him to try and take Eren away from her protection, it was her fault he was kidnapped anyway.

It was always her fault. For everything.

"It's okay Annie."

The blond turned to look at Eren, who was giving her a reassuring smile.

"I understand that you want to make sure I'm okay, but truthfully, the tall and buff ones over there have the best chance at carrying me without causing further injury."

Two simultaneous shouts of "HEY" broke out from said tall and buff ones.

Annie stares at Eren for a few moments, as if trying to find something being told through his expression. Finally, she relented and passed Eren over to Reiner, who leans over to give Eren a piggy-back ride. Eren slid into position and felt himself rise on Reiner's back.

"We'll take him back to base. I suggest everyone branches out to the other squads and tell them to get ready to return. Somehow I don't think the instructors will continue this survival training."

Everyone nods as they begin to branch out in pairs, to find the rest of the cadets. Mikasa gives Eren a fleeting look before heading out with Sasha to find the hungry girls team.

Annie walks past Marco, the cadet she was going to go find his team with. As they reached the treeline, she sends a quick look in Eren's direction, only to find that Eren, Reiner and Bertolt had left her vision range. With nothing to look at, Annie turns back to following Marco. She just had to hope those two didn't mess up somehow. 

Eren didn't take notice of how long it took for his two large friends to carry his battered body back to the main base, he was far more focused on making sure that both his injuries didn't heal too quickly, he was far too paranoid to allow someone to see that. When they did reach the base camp, the sun was just beginning to pop out of the treeline, covering the training grounds in a slight golden glow. If Eren was not in such a worrying situation he would've have commented on the beauty of the training ground in this light, but he feared even a moment's relapse in focus could cause his accelerated healing to kick in.

His comrades rushed him towards the medical barracks, which was part of the staff barracks, not even taking a second to announce their presence, they barged into the staff's barracks, instantly being verbally barraged by the commander.

"WHAT IN THE SAM HILL IS GOING ON HERE? HOW DARE YOU SHITSTAINS BARGE IN HERE LIKE YOU OWN THE PLACE? WERE YOU ALL RAISED IN A BARN..."

The commander stopped mid-rant as he noticed the bruised and battered body of Eren Yeager lying limply in both of the teen's arms, immediately Shadis's eyes sunk even further into his skull as he spoke quietly but fiercely.

"Take Yeager into the medical ward, set him on one of the beds, I will get a medic… but after that… _I want one of you to explain what the fuck happened_ ".

Both of the tall teens nodded dumbly as they hurried Eren into the back where the medical centre was. Shadis stayed where he was, staring furiously at everything and yet nothing at the same time. He calmly closed the front door and took a moment to take a deep breath, one of his charges had been injured under his watch, someone placed under his care was brutalised, he takes one more deep calming breath.

Someone was going regret doing what they did.

Commander Shadis stormed into the back, ready to drill the cadets for all the info they had, flagging a member of the medical staff on the way to the back. Yeager was one of the most stubborn and idiotic recruits he had ever had, but he had heart and determination.

And Shadis would be dammed before he allowed this particular cadet to give up.

Eren opened his eyes after god only knows how long, the last thing he remembered was being placed into a rather comfy bed and being ordered to rest, and who was he to deny an order from commander Shadis himself? So, rest he did.

Eren allowed his eyes to adjust for a moment before widening them in worry, sitting up in bed Eren looked towards his ankle that was previously broken, feeling a great amount of relief when he noticed the cast around his foot and ankle. Eren sighed, the cast would hide the healed injury from suspicious eyes and allow for him to recover at a slightly faster than normal rate, and not an insane recovery rate. Eren checked himself over thoroughly, he felt great, other than the slightly uncomfortable feeling of the cast on his foot, he was feeling as fit as a fiddle.

Taking note of his surroundings, he found himself in a very clean room, empty beds lining the walls on each side of the room, he was the only person currently in the room. Not for long although, as the door to the medical ward slammed open, revealing the imposing figure of instructor Shadis. Eren gulped, his nerves consuming him, he only had a few seconds but he had to see what had healed, mentally assessing his body, he found that he had healed completely, dread filled him, how long had he been in here? If he had healed instantly, that could land him into some boiling water, Shadis was upon him, looking down with those cold, intimidating eyes, to Eren they always seemed to be looking through you, rather than at you.

"Cadet Yeager… what happened?"

"Sir! I was on watch at the time, about to swap with Krista. Suddenly we were attacked by human traffickers, they knocked me out and captured Krista and I."

"I gathered as much from the other cadets… what happened next?"

Eren clenched the bedsheets at the next memory, those disgusting monsters… what they were going to do to Krista, made him absolutely sick, he felt no regret from snuffing out their pathetic lives.

"I awoke and realised I was tied to a tree, three captors sat around, one of them had a hold of Krista, he spoke about what he would do to her… I couldn't allow that, so I insulted that monster, made him angry, so angry that he took me away into the forest to beat me."

"How exactly did you deal with these captors, according to Krista, the other captors followed you and the other one, when he had not returned for a while, now how did you survive all of that?"

Eren inwardly sighed in relief, thankful that Krista had not said anything about the titan, he'd have to repay her down the road… without letting her know he was the titan of-course.

"The dumbass forgot to check me for weapons, I had a dagger inside my boot, when he turned away for a moment I stabbed him through the throat. I heard the other two coming and panicked, thinking quickly, I dived into a nearby bush, waiting for the bastards. When they arrived, they rushed to their dead friend, I grabbed the last one to pass by and stabbed him through the back of the throat. The last one saw me and beat me around until I manged to drive my knee into his balls, I finished him off soon after." Eren was worried at how well the lie had rolled off his tongue, he hoped that didn't represent him now, a lying weasel. The instructor's face held no change, he continued to stare a whole right through Eren.

"You say to stabbed them correct?"

"Y-yes sir!"

"Then where are the bodies?"

Eren paused in shock, why had not thought about that!? He needed a response, he opened his mouth and hoped whatever came out would convince Shadis.

"I don't know sir… I rushed back to Krista as soon as I killed the last one, and then I stumbled into the group… maybe it was wolves?"

Eren mentally cringed, that excuse was so poor, he internally prayed that Shadis would at least accept it.

"Hmm… okay Yeager, wolves are rare in the forest, but they do live there… I have another question though… it has only been a couple of days and yet… you have completely healed… no broken bones, fractures, concussions… anything, any idea why?"

"Uhh… no sir… I guess I just heal quickly?"

"It certainly seems that way doesn't it Yeager… Now, I'm going to go inform management you're back in training shape, don't expect to be able to be a lazy fuck in this here comfy medical ward, understood shitstain!?"

"SIR YES SIR!"

With that Shadis nodded his head before marching out of the room, Eren could hear mumbled voices through the doorway and soon after Shadis's leave, a familiar blonde walked through, Eren couldn't stop the small smile from gracing his face.

"Annie! What are you doing here?" Annie didn't respond, not immediately at least, she just marched over to Eren's bed, grabbed the nearest chair, and placed herself right next to the young man, an unreadable expression was on her face.

"Annie, you okay?"

The girl didn't respond, she continued to stare into Eren's eyes, it made him shiver internally, it wasn't like he hated the feeling of her eyes on him, he enjoyed it.

 _Stupid teen emotions, I know I like Annie, don't have to go nuts every time she looks at me._

"You're a fool Yeager…"

"Eh?"

"You're a fool and I hate you Yeager…"

"Annie… What's wrong?"

Eren could see Annie's form shake, her fists clenched so tightly that her knuckles turned white, Eren wanted to reach out and hold her hands, he wanted to let her know it was okay, but he didn't move. No… It was like he couldn't move, he had to let Annie finish what she had just started, he needed to know what she wanted to say.

"I hate how you smile, I hate how you look, I hate how you laugh, how you get along with everyone, I hate your saviour attitude, I hate the way you look at me, the way you treat me… I HATE IT ALL!" Her eyes were closed now, and her entire body trembled.

"Annie… I'm sorr…"

"I hate how you made me care about you…"

Eren froze in place, what did Annie just whisper? So, quiet, he barely heard her, but he did and his chest seemed to almost explode in joy. Annie still shivered, eyes shit so tightly it hurt.

"I hate how I feel happy when you talk to me… I hate how when you smile at me I want to smile back, I hate it when you talk to other girls, I hate what you've done to me Eren Yeager".

Said Yeager didn't know what to say, his heart was beating a mile a minute, he had no experience with this kind of thing, he took a deep breath and slowly placed his hands over Annie's clenched fists, taking joy when she didn't immediately throw his hands off, instead he felt her relax slightly from his touch. He swallowed a lump in his dry throat, it was now or never.

"Annie, tell me…"

Eren heard the blonde grind her teeth, deep breaths being forced through her body, she had to say this, she forced her eyes open, the amount of emotion flowing through those commonly emotionless eyes, the amount of emotion almost overwhelmed Eren, he couldn't even try to hide the massive grin at him being able to bring such feelings from the usual cold girl.

"But most all… I hate that I don't mind all of these things… No I don't hate it when you smile at me, look at me or talk to me, I enjoy them all, I want more of them, I want you to talk to me all the time, to look at me and only me, I want you to touch me and hold me… I… I… I… hate how weak I've become to need you near me!" Her eyes blazed like a thousand suns, laying all of her emotions on the table, she allowed Eren to see her at her weakest, and Eren knew this, he wouldn't make her regret her trust in him.

"It angers me that I feel like this, I am a warrior, not some simple child controlled by her emotions, and yet, I can't help it… you're an evil man Eren Yeager…" Although the words spoken would seem harsh, they had no venom behind them, just a dawning acceptance of her fate, she looked down at Eren's hands that covered her own, an unnoticeable smile grew on her lips, unclenching her fists, she turned them around to entwine her slender fingers with Eren's. Eren's head shot down, a fluttering feeling within his chest at the sight.

Annie grumbled, a mock threatening look directed at Eren. "You better help fix this Yeager…"

Eren chuckled, he tightened his grasp onto Annie's hands and gently placed his forehead against hers, feeling a great amount of pleasure as her cheeks flared up in embarrassment, he stared deep into her eyes, allowing Annie to see all. He opened his mouth, and whispered something Annie would remember till the end of her days.

"There's nothing to fix Annie, I feel the same way…"

 **CHAPTER FINISH**

 **So what'dya all think eh? Did any of you think Annie's emotional outburst was too out of character? Or did you enjoy it? Lemme know what you think, many thanks for reading and hopefully enjoying what I wrote, feel free to message me with any questions about anything.**

 **SEE YA!**


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